SYRO-MALABAR CATHOLIC CHURCH

The Syro-Malabar Church traces its origin to St.Thomas Apostle, who came to India in 52 A.D. Those converted by St. Thomas with their descendants over several centuries might have grown into a sizable Christian community in India. There were also some migrations of Persian Christians to Kerala, the first of those was in 345 A.D. under the leadership of a Persian merchant by name Thomas of Cnana with a bishop, some priests and several families who came from Edessa. Similar incidents of immigration were there in the 8th or 9th century also.  In any case, Indian Christians were all along not under the direct jurisdiction of the Pope of Rome, and, therefore, were not Catholics in the true sense of that term. On the contrary, they were having direct connection with the Persian Church at Antioch, and this continued until the arrival of the Portuguese missionaries in India. The Synod of Diamper held in 1599 by the Archbishop Menesez of Goa was the event that brought the Kerala Christians under the Roman Catholic fold and the authority of the Pope of Rome.  But in 1653, with the famous “Coonan Cross Declaration” at Mattanchery, a large section of the St. Thomas Christians is reported to have taken an oath to disobey the ruling  Latin Bishop, and thereby got separated from the fold of the Roman Catholic Church. This was the starting point of divisions among Christians in Kerala who were until that time only one Church. Eventually, those St. Thomas Christians who agreed to continue under the Latin rule formed themselves into the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church and those who opposed formed themselves into an independent ecclesial community which gradually got into an ecclesial relationship with the ancient Christian Church of Antioch (Malankara Church) and they came to be known as Jacobites. In course of time, division took place also in the Jacobite Church, resulting in the formation of a Malankara Orthodox Church. The Syro-Malabar Catholic Church has today 5 Archdioceses and 25 Dioceses, out of which 18 are in Kerala, Tamilnadu or Karnataka while 9 are in various other Indian states with exclusive Syro-Malabar jurisdiction, 2 have multiple jurisdictions and 1 is outside India, for USA and Canada together.  The head of this Church is the Major Archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese, the 4 other Archdioceses are Changanacherry, Trichur, Kottayam and Tellicherry. 


References:

1.MUNDADAN, A.M. History of Christianity in India Vol. I: Till the Middle of the Sixteenth Century, Bangalore, Church History Association of India) 1980, 567 pp.
2.JOSEPH THEKKEDATH. History of Christianity in India, Vol. II: From the Middle of the Sixteenth Century to the End of the Seventeenth Century, Bangalore, Church History Association of India, 1982; 529 pp.)