Related Research Articles
The St Thomas Christians, also called Syrian Christians of India, Marthoma Nasrani, Malankara Nasrani, or Nasrani Mappila, are an ethno-religious community of Indian Christians in the state of Kerala, who currently employ the East Syriac and West Syriac liturgical rites of Syriac Christianity. They trace their origins to the evangelistic activity of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century. The St Thomas Christians had been historically a part of the hierarchy of the Church of the East but are now divided into several different Eastern Catholic, Oriental Orthodox, Protestant, and independent bodies, each with their own liturgies and traditions. They are Malayalis and speak Malayalam. Nasrani or Nazarene is a Syriac term for Christians, who were among the first converts to Christianity in the Near East.
The Syro-Malabar Catholic Church is an Eastern Catholic Church based in Kerala, India. The Syro-Malabar Church is an autonomous particular church in full communion with the pope and the worldwide Catholic Church, including the Latin Church and the 22 other Eastern Catholic Churches, with self-governance under the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches (CCEO). It is part of the Major Archiepiscopal Churches of the Catholic Church that are not distinguished with a patriarchal title. The Church is headed by the Metropolitan and Gate of all India Major Archbishop Mar George Cardinal Alencherry. The Syro-Malabar Synod of Bishops canonically convoked and presided over by the Major Archbishop constitutes the supreme authority of the Church. The Major Archiepiscopal Curia of the Church is based in Kakkanad, Kochi. Syro-Malabar is a prefix coined from the words Syriac as the church employs the East Syriac Rite liturgy, and Malabar which is the historical name for modern Kerala. The name has been in usage in official Vatican documents since the nineteenth century. It is the second largest Eastern Catholic Church in the Catholic communion, after the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. The Syro-Malabar Church is primarily based in India; with 5 metropolitan archeparchies (archdioceses) and 10 suffragan eparchies in Kerala, there's 17 eparchies in other parts of India, and 4 eparchies outside India.
Christianity is India's third-largest religion after Hinduism and Islam, just ahead of Sikhism with about 27.8 million adherents, constituting 2.3 percent of India's population. According to the written records of St Thomas Christians, Christianity was introduced to the Indian subcontinent by Thomas the Apostle, who is said to have sailed to the Malabar region in 52 AD, the present-day Kerala, India. There is a general scholarly consensus that Christian communities were firmly established off the coast of Kerala by the 6th century AD, these were Eastern Christians of the Church of the East in India, who worshipped in Syriac. As a result Malankara Nasranis have a unique Syro-Malabarese culture which includes Christianised Jewish elements with some Hindu customs and values as well. Following the discovery of the Cape route by the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama in the 15th century, Western Christians like Latin Christians and Protestants formed in the cities of Portuguese Goa and Damaon and British Bombay etc.
In the Catholic Church, an apostolic visitor is a papal representative with a transient mission to perform a canonical visitation of relatively short duration. The visitor is deputed to investigate a special circumstance in a diocese or country, and to submit a report to the Holy See at the conclusion of the investigation.
The Coonan Cross Oath, also known as the Great Oath of Bent Cross, the Leaning Cross Oath or the Oath of the Slanting Cross, taken on 3 January 1653 in Mattancherry, was a public avowal by members of the Saint Thomas Christians of the Malabar region in India, that they would not submit to the Jesuits and Latin Catholic hierarchy, nor accept Portuguese dominance (Padroado) in ecclesiastical and secular life. There are various versions about the wording of oath, one version being that the oath was directed against the Portugese, another that it was directed against Jesuits, yet another version that it was directed against the authority of Church of Rome
The Chaldean Syrian Church of India is an Eastern Christian denomination, based in Thrissur, in India. It is organized as a metropolitan province of the Assyrian Church of the East, and represents traditional Christian communities of the East Syriac Rite along the Malabar Coast of India. It is headed by Mar Aprem Mooken, Metropolitan of India, who is in full communion with Patriarch Mar Awa III, head of the Assyrian Church of the East. Metropolitan is assisted by two Bishops, Mar Yohannan Yoseph, and Mar Awgin Kuriakose.
The Carmelites of Mary Immaculate, formerly also known as the Servants of Mary Immaculate, is a clerical religious congregation of pontifical right for men of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, and is the largest such congregation in the Syro-Malabar Church.
The Knanaya Syro-Malabar Catholic Archeparchy of Kottayam is a metropolitan Archeparchy of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church in India. The Archeparchy is exclusively for Knanaya faithful who are the descendants of Syriac Judeo-Christians who migrated from South Mesopotamia to Kodungallur (Muziris) in South India in 345 AD.
Mar Emmanuel Giles Pothanamuzhi, C. M. I. was a Syro-Malabar bishop.
The Syro-Malabar Catholic Eparchy of Bijnor is a Syro-Malabar Catholic eparchy in Uttarakhand, India. Its current bishop is the Mar Vincent Nellaiparambil,, who was consecrated bishop on 1 November 2019.
This is a timeline of the history of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church in India.
Baselios Cleemis is the current major archbishop - catholicos of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church. He was named to the College of Cardinals of the Catholic Church by Pope Benedict XVI on 24 November 2012.
Kariattil Mar Ouseph, alternatively written as Mar Joseph Kariattil, was the first native Indian to be appointed as Metropolitan of Kodungalloor (Cranganore) for Syrian Catholics in the territory now comprising Kerala, India.
Palliveettil Chandy also known as Parambil Chandy is the first native Syrian Catholic bishop of Malabar. He is considered to be the first canonically consecrated native bishop of Saint Thomas Christians. He was the bishop of the East Syriac Rite (Chaldaean) hierarchy after the Coonan Cross Oath in 1653. This faction returned to full communion with the Holy See of Rome, it would later become known as the modern-day Eastern Catholic Syro-Malabar Church. Mar Chandy's tomb is at the Marth Mariam Major Archiepiscopal Church at Kuravilangad.
Mar George Alencherry is the Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Church and is also a cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was elected by the Holy Synod of the Syro-Malabar Church in 2011 to succeed Varkey Vithayathil. He was created a cardinal on 18 February 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI. He was the first bishop of Thuckalay from 1997 to 2011 before his enthronement as the Major Archbishop. He is also the current president of Kerala Catholic Bishops' Council (KCBC), which is the general conference for the bishops of the Latin, Malankara Catholic and Syro-Malabar Catholic hierarchies of Kerala, and the Chairman of the Inter-church Council of Kerala.
Mar Yohannan, also known as a monk Yoseph of Awgin, was Bishop of India, a metropolitan province of the Church of the East. In 1490, envoys of Saint Thomas Christians from the Malabar Coast in India traveled to Mesopotamia and arrived in Gazarta, bringing appeals to the hierarchy of the Church of the East, and asking for new bishops. Patriarch Shemon IV responded positively to their request and arranged the selection of two monks from the Awgin Monastery, both of them called Yoseph, appointing them as bishops, under new names: Mar Yohannan and Mar Thoma, and dispatching them to India. Mar Yohannan stayed in India, while Mar Thomas returned to Mesopotamia. In 1503, three new bishops were sent to India, by new Patriarch Eliya V: Mar Yahballaha, Mar Dinkha and Mar Yaqob. Upon arrival, they met with Mar Yohannan. Activities of Mar Yohannan and other bishops reaffirmed traditional ties between Christians of India and the Church of the East. By that time, local Christians of the Malabar Coast were also facing some additional challenges, caused by the establishment of Portuguese presence in India.
Mar Gregory Karotemprel is an East Syriac Catholic bishop and theologian. He is Bishop Emeritus of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Eparchy of Rajkot.
Mar Antony Prince Panengaden is an Indian Syro-Malabar Catholic hierarch, who serves as an Eparchial Bishop of Adilabad since 6 August 2015.
Angamāly Padiyōla is a historic declaration of the Catholic (Paḻayakūṟ) Saint Thomas Christians proclaimed in 1787 at the Great Church of Saint George in Angamāly. This document made a strong appeal to the pope for the consecration of a native bishop for the community and demanded autonomy for their Church which was forcibly brought under the Latin Church's jurisdiction.
The Malankara Church Paḻayakūṟ or Pazhayakoor refers to the East Syriac denominations of the Saint Thomas Christian Church, which claim ultimate apostolic origin from the Indian mission of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century AD. The Paḻayakūṟ descends from the faction that remained within the Catholic fold and held fast to an East Syriac identity after the historic Coonan Cross Oath of 1653 while being part of the community seceded from the Portuguese Padroado. The modern descendants of the Paḻayakūṟ Malankara Church are the Syro-Malabar Church and the Chaldean Syrian Church. Among these, the former is an Eastern Catholic Church in full Communion with the Holy See and the latter is an integral part of the Assyrian Church of the East, one of the traditionalist descendants of the Church of the East.
References
- ↑ "Dharmaram - Milestones" . Retrieved 9 December 2013.
- ↑ "Rev. Dr. A. Mathias Mundadan CMI (1923-2012)". Syro Malabar Church News. Retrieved 9 December 2013.
- Church History Association of India
- A. Mathias Mundadan / The St. Thomas Christian Encyclopaedia of India
| General | |
|---|---|
| National libraries | |
| Other | |
