1 Introduction Syro-Malabar Church has a long history. But certain elements of her history are yet to be made clear. Studies are going on in this regard. The ancient period can rightly be called ‘the apostolic period’ in the history of the Syro-Malabar Church. Apostle St Thomas laid a strong foundation to this Church. The recent archaeological researches done in and around Muziris and the studies regarding the coins of king Gundaphar, discovered from Afghanistan and Pakistan, prove many facts of history which were formerly part of tradition or belief. The beliefs of our ancestors handed over to us as traditions are not fictions, but historical facts, but often shrouded with other narrations, as their intentions were not exactly to hand over the historical facts. Therefore, a study of ancient history is to be done critically and not literally. The fame of India in the ancient Greco- Roman world, the Roman trade with ancient India, presence of Jews in Kerala etc helped Thomas to reach India for evangelization. As early as the fifth century and perhaps even before India’s Christian community had maintained a conscious connection with the authority of the Persian patriarch and with the Syriac language and liturgy of the Nestorian Church or the Church of the East. In the seventh century this dependence took on a measure of structural independence when the Nestorian patriarch granted the metropolitan (archbishop) in India freedom from the jurisdiction of the Persian metropolitan of Rew-ardashir. From that time on India’s ecclesiastical ties with the Baghdad patriarchate became more and more intermittent. No continuous succession of resident metropolitans in India can be traced with any reliability, and it is thought that during vacancies in the sea, a local archdeacon assumed temporary authority. By the end of the fifteenth century, as the Persian patriarchate shrank back from the cities into the hills, India’s ecclesiastical ties with any church outside India had all but reached the vanishing point. The 2 community of the Thomas Christians maintained ever fainter but never quite extinguished loyalties to the Persian church, but were becoming ‘Hindu in culture, Christian in religion and oriental in worship’. The period during which the St Thomas Christians were under the Portuguese Padroado and Propaganda fide rules (16th till 19th centuries) is considered the modern period of the SyroMalabar Church. During this period the church witnessed a number of changes in all respects. The oriental nature, Syrian liturgy, Indian customs all underwent changes. Mid fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries was a period of great changes in Europe both in the secular and in the ecclesiastical realms. The renaissance, reformation, geographical discoveries, maritime explorations, colonial rule are some of the motivating forces of the modern period. The pioneering countries of this time were Portugal and Spain. But there appeared soon Holland, France and England in the field. It is no wonder to find the tendencies of this new period in the attitude of the first Portuguese who reached India. This is all the more true with regard to the latecomers as well. The contemporary history or the real modern period of the Syro-Malabar Church begins towards the end of the nineteenth century with the establishment of two separate vicariates of Kottayam and Trissir in 1887. This new beginning is strengthened with the appointment of native bishops in the new three vicariates in 1896. The separation of the Syrians from the Latins helped the growth of both churches in India. The establishment of Latin hierarchy in 1887 and the Syro-Malabar hierarchy in 1923 gave impetus to the growth of Christianity in India. Only with the final suppression of Portuguese padroado rule in India the church leadership could function smoothly and effectively. When for the European Christianity 16th and 17th centuries was the period of expansion, for the Syro-Malabar Church it was the 20th century when many new dioceses both in Kerala and outside were created. 3 Contents Introduction Contents Ancient Period I. Missionary journey of St Thomas in North India II. Missionary journey of St Thomas in South India III. The Indian mission of Pantaenus in 189 IV. St Bartholomew and India V. The Acts of Thomas VI. Patristic literature on the Indian mission of St Thomas VII. St Ephrem and St Jerome on St Thomas and India VIII. The martyrdom of St Thomas at Mylapore/Chennai IX. The tradition of ‘seven churches’ in Kerala X. Disappearance of Christianity in India except in the Malabar Coast Medieval Period XI. Beginning of Persian contact XII. Persian migrations XIII. Indian Church in the 5th and 6th centuries XIV. Indian Church in the 7th and 8th centuries XV. Emergence of Kollam as a Christian centre XVI. Hierarchical Organization in the Church of St Thomas Christians 4 XVII. Faith and Communion of St Thomas Christians XVIII. Socio-political life of St Thomas Christians in the medieval period XIX. Customs and practices related with family life XX. Liturgical and sacramental life in the medieval period XXI. Moral and religious life XXII. Ecclesial life Modern period XXIII. Beginning of Portuguese rule in India XXIV. Pseudo-synod of Diamper XXV. Consequences of the synod XXVI. Revolt of 1653 against Portuguese rule XXVII. Beginning of Propaganda rule in India XXVIII. Intervention of Propaganda jurisdiction in the Malabar Church XXIX. St Thomas Christians under double jurisdiction in the 17th century XXX. St Thomas Christians under double jurisdiction in the 18th century XXXI. St Thomas Christians under double jurisdiction in the 19th century XXXII. First suppression of the archdiocese of Kodungalloor XXXIII. Extinction of the see of Kodungalloor XXXIV. Role of Cariattil and Paremakkal in the struggle for autonomy XXXV. Role of Mar Pandari and Mathu Tharakan in the struggle for autonomy XXXVI. Rokos and Mellus schisms on the way to struggle for autonomy 5 XXXVII. Role of Fr Mani Nidhiri in the struggle for identity and autonomy XXXVIII.Role of St Kuriakose Elias Chavara in the struggle for identity and autonomy Contemporary Period XXXIX. Apostolic visitors to Malabar XL. Erection of Kottayam and Trissur as Syro-Malabar vicariates XLI. Appointment of native bishops XLII. Separate vicariate of Kottayam for the Knanaites XLIII. Erection of Syro-Malabar Hierarchy XLIV. Extension of the territory of Syro-Malabar vicariates XLV. Syro-Malabar mission dioceses XLVI. Syro-Malabar Church becomes major archiepiscopal XLVII. Synodal functioning of the Syro-Malabar major archiepiscopal Church XLVIII. Mar Varkey Vithayathil, the major archbishop XLIX. Mar George Cardinal Alencherry, the present major archbishop L. Syro-Malabar eparchies and bishops LI. Syro-Malabar major seminaries LII. Religious Congregations/Societies for men in the Syro- Malabar Church LIII. Religious Congregations/Societies for women in the Syro-Malabar Church LIV. Syro-Malabar Church tomorrow Selected Bibliography 6 7 ANCIENT PERIOD I Missionary journey of St Thomas in North India The missionary journey of Apostle Thomas to India from Jerusalem in the first century of the Christian era was not something unimaginable or impossible as some think. He reached India either by land route or sea route. The existence of these routes and the oft- frequented Alexandria-India travels by the traders should have helped Thomas. The visit of a trade agent from an Indian king to Jerusalem and even a voyage to India by an apostle of Christ would have been not at all unusual. The account of the Acts of Thomas1 takes him on a sea voyage to India, which at that time was part of the Parthian kingdom of Gundaphar2 with the capital Taxila and a second one to South India including Kerala to the kingdom of Mazdai which could be called Tamizhakam. Although both land and sea routes were operational, the later were faster, safer and were used by preference by travellers. 8 1. Alexandria-Muziris trade route In the first part of the AoT we read that Thomas starts his journey from Jerusalem. But the starting point of his missionary journey to India should be Alexandria and not Jerusalem since Jerusalem is not a port city and from where there is no route leading to India. The classical trade route to India began from Alexandria.3 The purpose of the author of AoT is neither historical nor geographical but only catechetical. That means to teach the readers that the mission of the apostles starts from Jerusalem, the Holy City of Our Lord. De Miraculis Beati Thomae writes that Our Lord asks Thomas who was at Caesarea that time to go to India. Then from Jerusalem Thomas came first in Caesarea and the real missionary journey starts from Alexandria where Habban, the trade commissioner of the Indian king Gundaphar met Thomas. That time Alexandria was the greatest port in the world and the second biggest city of the Roman Empire. India was quite possibly more open to direct communication with the West in the first two centuries of the Christian era. E.H. Warmington describes the time as an age of new discoveries and enterprises. Roman peace (pax Romana) and prosperity encouraged traders to turn east both by sea and by land – by sea through Greek and Arab middlemen, and by land through Jewish, Syrian and Armenian traders. The main channel for trade was the sea because of Roman-Persian wars along the land routes.4 2. St Thomas lands at Broach in Gujarat According to the AoT Habban and Thomas landed in Andrapolis or Broach in Gujarat, the royal city. He then proceeded to the palace of the king Gundaphar who was searching a man to build a palace. Thomas left Andrapolis in haste, having angered the king by converting his daughter at her own wedding to a gospel of Christian virginity.5 The ascetic emphasis is an often recurring theme in the 9 early apocryphal Acts of the Apostles.