Saint Thomas Christians
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This article deals with Saint Thomas Christians or Mar Thoma Khristianis (Malayalam :മാ൪േതാമാ കൃിസ്തിയാനികള്) and the various churches and denominations that form the Nasrani people
The Saint Thomas Christians are a group of Christians from the Malabar coast (now Kerala) in South India, who follow Syriac Christianity. The different groups and denominations within the St Thomas Christians together form the Nasrani people. Their tradition goes back to the very beginnings of first century Christian thought, and the seven churches that are believed to have been established by St. Thomas the Apostle. Marthomas are a religious sect only found in that of Kerala India, in fact there have been very few or rarely any non-Indian Marthoma to date.
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Nasrani and Saint Thomas Christian tradition
The Nasranis are an ethnic people and in that sense a single community. However the Nasranis have various denominations as a result of Portuguese persecution. As an ethnic community they refer to themselves as Nasranis referring to the common cultural heritage and cultural tradition. However as a religious group they refer to themselves as the Mar Thoma Khristianis or in English as Saint Thomas Christians referring to the various and diverse religious denominations between them in terms of their religious tradition, despite a common ancestory of being the descendants of the early Mar Thoma church or Saint Thomas tradition of Christianity.
These first century churches, according to tradition, were, from north to south: Palayoor near Guruvayoor/Kunnankulam, Cranganore (believed to be the ancient Muziris of Pliny, and the Periplus, on the north bank of Periyar River today), Paravoor on the south side of Periyar, Gokkamangalam or Kokkamangalam, Niranam, Chayal or Nilakkal (the only inland church) and the Lakes or Kaayals, and finally Kollam. The visit of the Apostle Thomas to these places and to Mylapore on the East coast of India can be read in the Ramban Song of Thomas Ramban, set into modern writing c. 1500.
History of the Saint Thomas Christian tradition
Modern developments in archaeology, anthropology, numismatics, place-name studies, geography and trade route investigations have revealed evidence of the trading which forms the background to the St. Thomas tradition of India.
The lure of spices attracted traders from the Middle East and Europe to the many trading ports — Calicut, Cranganore, Cochin, Alleppey and Quilon — long before the time of Christ. According to the first century annals of Pliny the Elder and the author of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, Muziris in Kerala could be reached in 40 days' time from the Egyptian coast purely depending on the South West Monsoon winds. The Sangam works Puraana Nooru and Akana Nooru have many lines which speak of the Roman vessels and the Roman gold that used to come to the Kerala ports of the great Chera kings in search of pepper and other spices, which had an enormous demand in the West.
According to tradition, it was on a trading vessel plying between Alexandria and the Malabar coast that St. Thomas the Apostle arrived in Maliankara village in AD 52. This village is situated near Moothakunnam in Paravoor Thaluk. St. Thomas arrived on the south side of Periyar; on the north side is Cranganoor. St. Thomas is said to have begun preaching the gospel to the already existing Jewish settlers in the Malabar Coast and other locals. According to the Acts of Thomas, the first converts made by Thomas in India were Jewish people (Jews in India).
St. Thomas established seven Christian communities or churches in Kerala. They are in Cranganore, Paravur (Kottakavu), Palayoor, Kokkamangalam, Malayattoor, Niranam and Kollam (Quilon). Legend is that the Apostolate of St. Thomas arrived in Kerala in the First Century CE and converted some Brahmins in Palayur to Christianity. The concept of converting Brahmins is only a legend because Brahmins arrive in south in India only in 8th Century, during the reign of Gupta dynasty. However, these converts were India's first St. Thomas Christians. They include Kalli, Kallarakal, Kalliankal, Manki, Madathalan, Plavunkal, Mattamuk, Manavasri, Pakalomattom, Sankarapuri, Thayil & cet.
In the 4th century, a settlement of Jewish Christians was founded in Kottayam by Thomas Kynai at the behest of the Catholicos of the Assyrian Church of the East. They became known as the Knanaya. Currently, there are no independent Knanaya religious organizations; they look either to the Pope of Rome or the Syrian Orthodox Church for ecclesiastic legitimacy. Nevertheless, this community has rigidly maintained its distinct ethnic identity to the present day, vehemently prohibiting intermarriage with non-Knanaya even within their own religious jurisdiction while freely permitting Knanaya marriage between Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches.
Place in Indian culture
Throughout Kerala, one can find Christian families that claim their descent from Jewish ancestors who were baptized by Apostle Thomas. St. Thomas Christians were classified into the caste system according to their professions, in accordance with the Hindu tradition, with special privileges for trade granted by the benevolent Hindu kings. People in Hindu kingdoms, regardless of religion, were expected to strictly abide by stringent rules pertaining to caste and religion. This is why St. Thomas Christians had such a strong sense of caste and tradition, being the oldest order of Christianity in India. The archdeacon was the head of the Church, and Palliyogams (Parish Councils) were in charge of temporal affairs. They had a liturgy-centered life with days of fasting and abstinence. Their devotion to the Mar Thoma Cross was absolute. Their churches were modelled after Jewish synagogues.
In short, the St. Thomas Christians of Kerala had blended well the ecclesiastical world of the East Syriac Church with the socio-cultural environment of their homeland. Thus, the East Syriac Church was South Indian in culture, Christian in religion, and Judeo-Syro-Oriental in worship. The Marthoma religion is something that has been given birth in that of India, but is widely unrecognized to be an Indian religion to many Indians and to others in the world. Though Marthomas have a significant influence from Indian religions such as Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, and Buddhism, it is considered to be that of a Christian religion mainly due to its belief in Jesus Christ. The World Religious Foundation does not recognize Marthoma as a distinct religion though the followers themselves believe so, its teaching differ from the that of the Catholic Pope and that of Martin Luther and his 95 theses in the creation of Protestant reformation. In fact it is widely believed that Marthomas are a new religion created in India which has gained little recognition for Marthomas and India as a nation.
Contact with Western Christianity
In 1498, when the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama landed on the Malabar coast, there were an estimated two million Christians across the land, and they had 1,500 churches under the jurisdiction of a single Metropolitan bishop who lived in Angamali. The arrival of Vasco da Gama, however, heralded a new struggle for the East Syrian Church, because the Portuguese, who later established trading posts in Goa, Daman and Diu north of Kerala, moved against the East Syrian Church in the Goa Inquisition leading to tragic, ecclesiastical incidents.
According to Joas de Castro, the Portuguese Viceroy in Goa in 1548, the sword of the Portuguese was wielded "mainly against the centuries-old Syrian-Christians of Kerala" because they opposed to Roman control of their church. This was because only in Kerala did the laity stand steadfast against Western colonization, and maybe the Portuguese, who were under the Roman Church, considered everything outside Roman Catholicism as heretical, including the Syrian Christians they found in India.
The move against the Syrian Church was followed by the Roman Church establishing a Roman Catholic diocese in Goa in 1534. In 1557 Pope Paul IV declared Goa an archdiocese with its supremacy extending from the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa to China, and all Christians, including the East Syrian Church, brought under its jurisdiction. The East Syrian Archdiocese of Angamali then became a dependent of Goa and it lost many properties to Roman Catholicism.
This conversion to Roman Catholic rite led to divisions in the Church, as there was considerable resistance against Roman domination of its rituals and properties. The Christian communities then split into many groups — East Syriac Catholics, West Syriac Catholics, Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (in Oriental Orthodox Communion), Jacobite Syriac Orthodox Church (in Oriental Orthodox Communion), Mar Thoma Church (reformed), Chaldean Syrian Church Church of the East (those who accepted the Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East), and the Latin-Rite Roman Catholic Church. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Jacobite and other St. Thomas christain bishops assisted at consecrations of Old-Catholic bishops who went on to form the movement of Independent Catholic Churches.
| West Syriac (Antiochian) | East Syriac (Chaldean) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oriental Orthodox-reformed | Oriental Orthodox | Eastern Catholic | Assyrian Church of the East | |||
| Mar Thoma Church | Malabar Independent Syrian Church | Indian Orthodox Church | Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church | Syro-Malankara Catholic Church | Syro-Malabar Catholic Church | Chaldean Syrian Church |
| N.B. The Malabar Independent Syrian Church, while Oriental Orthodox in tradition, is not in communion with the rest of Oriental Orthodoxy.This church is in communion however with the Mar Thoma Church and both curches have assisted each other in the consecration of bishops.The Mar Thoma Church itself, while continuing to maintain a Syrian idenitity, has moved closer to the Anglican Communion and maintains communion with both the Anglican groupings in India - The CNI(Church of North India) and CSI(Church of South India) | ||||||
Nasrani religious jurisdictions
(in alphabetical order by Communion)
- Anglican Communion
- Evangelical Protestant
- St. Thomas Evangelical Church
- Assyrian Church of the East
- Chaldean Syrian Church in India
- Oriental Orthodox Communion
- Indian Orthodox Church or the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (Autonomous & Autocephalus, although maintaining very close administrative relationship with the Syriac Orthodox Church)
- Jacobite Syriac Orthodox Church
- Oriental Orthodox tradition but independent
- Catholic
- Independent Catholic
Select bibliography
- The St. Thomas Christian Encyclopaedia of India, vol. 2, 1973 has some 70 lengthy articles by different experts on the origins, development, history, culture... of these Christians, with some 300 odd photographs.
- Another reference volume is the History of Christianity in India, vol.1, 1984.
- Placid Podipara's The Thomas Christians (London 1970) is a readable and exhaustive study of the St. Thomas Christians.
- For exhaustive bibliographies cf. the above works and the Indian Church History Classics, vol. 1, The Nazranies.
See also
External Links
- History of Kerala Christians
- Catholic Encyclopedia: St Thomas Christians
- Christians of Kerala
- The Mar Thoma Orthodox Church
Template:Syriac Christianity Template:IndicTextde:Thomaschristen fr:Églises orientales de l'Inde ja:トマス派 pl:Kościół malabarski