Christianity is the third-largest practiced religion in Kerala, accounting for 18% of the population according to the 2001 Indian census. [1] According to traditional accounts, Thomas the Apostle sailed to the Malabar region in 52 AD and introduced Christianity to the area. [2] Although a minority, the Christian population of Kerala is proportionally much larger than that of India as a whole. A significant portion of the Indian Christian population resides in the state. [3] [4]
The tradition of origin among Saint Thomas Christians relates to the arrival of Thomas, one of the 12 disciples of Jesus, at the ancient seaport Muziris on the Kerala coast in AD 52. [5] [6] [2] [7] [8]
It is also possible for Aramaic-speaking Jews from Galilee to make a trip to Kerala in the 1st century. The Cochin Jews are known to have existed in Kerala around that time.[ citation needed ]
The earliest known source connecting the apostle to India is the Acts of Thomas, likely written in the early 3rd century, perhaps in Edessa. The text describes Thomas' efforts in bringing Christianity to Northwest India, specifically in the Indo-Parthian Kingdom. [9]
According to traditional accounts such as the "Thomma Parvam" ("Song of Thomas"), he is generally described as arriving in or around Maliankara and founding Seven Churches and half churches, or Ezharapallikal: Kodungallur, Kollam, Niranam, Nilackal (Chayal), Kokkamangalam, Kottakkavu, Palayoor, Thiruvithamcode Arappalli and Aruvithura church (half church). A number of 3rd- and 4th-century Roman writers also mention Thomas' trip to India, including Ambrose of Milan, Gregory of Nazianzus, Jerome, and Ephrem the Syrian, while Eusebius of Caesarea records that Clement of Alexandria's teacher Pantaenus from Alexandria visited a Christian community in India using the Gospel of Matthew in Hebrew language in the 2nd century. [10] [11] Byzantine traveller Cosmas Indicopleustes wrote of Syrian Christians he met in Malabar and Sri Lanka in the 6th century. [12] [13] [14] In 883 the English king Alfred the Great reportedly sent a mission and gifts to Saint Thomas' tomb in India. [15] During the Crusades, distorted accounts of the Saint Thomas Christians and the Nestorian Church gave rise to the European legend of Prester John. [16]
Denominations among all Christians in Kerala
The 2011 Indian census found a total of 6,411,269 Christians in Kerala, [1] with their various denominations as stated: Saint Thomas Christians (including multiple Catholic, Oriental Orthodox and Protestant bodies) constituted 70.73% of the Christians of Kerala, followed by Latin Catholics at 13.3%, Pentecostals at 4.3%, CSI at 4.5%, Dalit Christians at 2.6% and other Protestant groups (such as Lutheran, Calvinist and other charismatic churches) at 5.9%.
The Saint Thomas Christians (Nasrani) of Kerala primarily belong to churches which use the East Syriac Rite (Syro-Malabar Catholic Church and Chaldean Syrian Church) and West Syriac Rite (Jacobite Syrian Christian Church, Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, Mar Thoma Syrian Church, St. Thomas Evangelical Church of India, Syro-Malankara Catholic Church and the Malabar Independent Syrian Church). The Church of South India belongs to the Anglican Communion and Saint Thomas Anglicans are theologically and liturgically similar to Anglicans elsewhere. Pentecostal Saint Thomas Christians, like other Pentecostals, are riteless (nonliturgical). [20] As of 2005 [update] , Saint Thomas Christians composed 12.5% of the total population of Kerala. [21] [22]
The Mar Thoma Syrian Church and St. Thomas Evangelical Church of India are Oriental Protestant churches. [23] [24] The Salvation Army also maintains a presence in Kerala.[ citation needed ]
In 2016, 61% of Christians in the state were Catholics, which includes Eastern Catholics and Latin Catholics. [25] The percentage of Catholics among Christians is the highest in Thrissur district.
Major Pentecostal denominations in Kerala include the India Pentecostal Church of God, Assemblies of God in India, Church of God (Full Gospel) in India, and The Pentecostal Mission.
Eastern Christianity comprises Christian traditions and church families that originally developed during classical and late antiquity in the Eastern Mediterranean region or locations further east, south or north. The term does not describe a single communion or religious denomination. Eastern Christianity is a category distinguished from Western Christianity, which is composed of those Christian traditions and churches that originally developed further west.
The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (MOSC) also known as the Indian Orthodox Church (IOC) or simply as the Malankara Church, is an autocephalous Oriental Orthodox church headquartered in Devalokam, near Kottayam, India. It serves India's Saint Thomas Christian population. According to tradition, these communities originated in the missions of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century. It employs the Malankara Rite, an Indian form of the West Syriac liturgical rite.
The Saint Thomas Christians, also called Syrian Christians of India, Marthoma Suriyani Nasrani, Malankara Nasrani, or Nasrani Mappila, are an ethno-religious community of Indian Christians in the state of Kerala, who, for the most part, employ the Eastern and Western liturgical rites of Syriac Christianity. They trace their origins to the evangelistic activity of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century. The Saint 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 their mother tongue is 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 Church, also known as the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, is an Eastern Catholic church based in Kerala, India. It is a sui iuris (autonomous) particular church in full communion with the Holy See and the worldwide Catholic Church, with self-governance under the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches (CCEO). The major archbishop presides over the entire church. The incumbent Major Archbishop is Raphael Thattil, serving since January 2024. It is the largest Syriac Christian church and the largest Eastern Catholic church. Syro-Malabar is a prefix reflecting the church's use of the East Syriac liturgy and origins in Malabar. The name has been in usage in official Vatican documents since the nineteenth century.
The Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church, often shortened to Mar Thoma Church, and known also as the Reformed Syrian Church and the Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar, is an autonomous Oriental Protestant Christian church based in Kerala, India. While continuing many of the Syriac high church practices, the church is Protestant in its theology and doctrines. It employs a reformed variant of the West Syriac Rite Divine Liturgy of Saint James, translated to Malayalam.
Syriac Christianity is a branch of Eastern Christianity of which formative theological writings and traditional liturgies are expressed in the Classical Syriac language, a variation of the old Aramaic language. In a wider sense, the term can also refer to Aramaic Christianity in general, thus encompassing all Christian traditions that are based on liturgical uses of the Aramaic language and its variations, both historical and modern.
Christianity is India's third-largest religion with about 26 million adherents, making up 2.3 percent of the population as of the 2011 census. The written records of St Thomas Christians mention that Christianity was introduced to the Indian subcontinent by Thomas the Apostle, who sailed to the Malabar region in 52 AD.
The Malankara Metropolitan or the Metropolitan of Malabar is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of the Malankara Orthodox Church. It evolved from the title of the sixteenth century East Syriac metropolitans of India who were also styled the Metropolitan of Malabar. Since the division among the Saint Thomas Christians following the Synod of Diamper, the title has been mostly employed in association with the West Syriac branch of the community, usually known as the Malankara Church, among whom the office of the Malankara Metropolitan became the continuation of the local dynastic Archdeaconate.
The Synod of Diamper (Udayamperoor Synod) (Malayalam: ഉദയംപേരൂർ സൂനഹദോസ്, romanized: Udayampērūṟ Sūnahadōs), held at Udayamperoor (known as Diamper in non-vernacular sources) in June 1599, was a diocesan synod, or council, that created rules and regulations for the ancient Saint Thomas Christians (also known as Mar Thoma Nasranis) of the Malabar Coast, a part of modern-day Kerala state, India, formally subjugating them and downgrading their whole Metropolitanate of India as the Diocese of Angamale, a suffragan see to the Archdiocese of Goa administered by Latin Church Padroado missionaries. This synod also introduced forced Liturgical Latinisation and the eschewal of local practices and beliefs, leading to a significant ecclesial protest by Saint Thomas Christians known as Coonan Cross Oath and a subsequent schism in the mid-17th century.
The Coonan Cross Oath, also known as the Great Oath of Bent Cross or Leaning Cross Oath, was taken on 3 January 1653, in Mattancherry, by a significant portion of the Saint Thomas Christian community in the Malabar region of India. This public declaration marked their refusal to submit to the authority of the Jesuits and the Latin Catholic hierarchy, as well as their rejection of Portuguese dominance in both ecclesiastical and secular matters.
The Malabar Independent Syrian Church (MISC), also known as the Thozhiyur Church, is a Christian church centred in Kerala, India. It is one of the churches of the Saint Thomas Christian community, which traces its origins to the evangelical activity of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century.
The term Eastern Protestant Christianity encompasses a range of heterogeneous Protestant Christian denominations that developed outside of the Western world, from the latter half of the nineteenth century, and retain certain elements of Eastern Christianity. Some of these denominations came into existence when active Protestant churches adopted reformational variants of Eastern and Oriental Orthodox liturgy and worship, while others originated from Orthodox groups who were inspired by the teachings of Western Protestant missionaries and adopted Protestant beliefs and practices.
This article lists the various old and ancient churches that exist among the Saint Thomas Christians in Kerala.
The Jacobite Syrian Christian Church, the Malankara Jacobite Syrian Church, the Malankara Syriac Orthodox Church or the Syriac Orthodox Church in India, is an autonomous Maphrianate of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch based in Kerala, India and a part of the Oriental Orthodox Communion. It is administered by the Malankara Metropolitan, Gregorios Joseph, under the spiritual authority of the Catholicos of India, which has been vacant since the passing away of Baselios Thomas I, and, the Patriarch of Antioch, Ignatius Aphrem II the supreme hierarch of the Syriac Orthodox Church.
The Malankara Church, also known as Puthenkur, is the unified body of Saint Thomas Christians using the West Syriac Rite who claim origins from the missions of Thomas the Apostle. This community, under the leadership of Thoma I, opposed the Padroado Jesuits as well as the Propaganda Carmelites following the Coonan Cross Oath of 1653, which was taken to resist Western Catholic influences.
Religion in Kerala is diverse. According to 2011 census of India figures, 54.73% of Kerala's population are Hindus, 26.56% are Muslims, 18.38% are Christians, and the remaining 0.33% follow other religions or have no religion. As of 2020, Hindus, Muslims, Christians and others account for 41.5%, 43.9%, 13.9% and 0.7% of the total child births in the state, respectively.
The Saint Thomas Christian denominations are Christian denominations from Kerala, India, which traditionally trace their ultimate origins to the evangelistic activity of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century. They are also known as "Nasranis" as well. The Syriac term "Nasrani" is still used by St. Thomas Christians in Kerala. It is part of the Eastern Christianity institution.
Church of India may refer to:
The Holy Qurobo or Holy Qurbono refers to the Eucharist as celebrated in Syro-Antiochene Rite and the liturgical books containing rubrics for its celebration. West Syriac Rite includes various descendants of the Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches. It consists of two distinct liturgical traditions: the Maronite Rite, and the Jacobite Rite. The major Anaphora of both the traditions is the Divine Liturgy of Saint James in Syriac language. The Churches are primarily based in the Middle East, Africa, and India.
The Paḻayakūṟ, also known as Romo-Syrians or Syrian Catholics of Malabar, are the Saint Thomas Christians who use the East Syriac Rite and claim apostolic origin from the Indian mission of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century AD.
St. Ephraem the Syrian (born about A.D. 300, died about 378), who spent most of his life at Edessa, in Mesopotamia, states that the Apostle was martyred in ' India,' and that his relics were taken thence to Edessa. That St. Thomas evangelized the Parthians, is stated by Origen (born A.D. 185 or 186, died about 251-254). Eusebius (bishop of Caesarea Palaestinae from A.D. 315 to about 340) says the same
.. The first convent was a simple bamboo-mat house at Koonammavu, on the land once administered by Vareed Vakayil. The congregation, under Mother Eliswa, was given the task of teaching girls who had no means to pursue education. St. Joseph's LP School at Koonammavu was set up in 1868 as the first Catholic school for girls in Malabar. Mother Eliswa's mission in life was to educate young girls and she set up several girls' schools here. ..
The Syrian Orthodox also became the target of Anglican missionary activity, as a result of which the Mar Thoma Church separated from the Orthodox in 1874, adopting the Anglican confession of faith and a reformed Syrian liturgy conforming to Protestant principles.
Metropolitan Juhanon Mar Thoma called it "a Protestant Church in an oriental grab."...As a reformed Oriental Church, it agrees with the reformed doctrines of the Western Churches. Therefore, there is much in common in faith and doctrine between the MTC and the reformed Churches of the West. As the Church now sees it, just as the Anglican Church is a Western Reformed Church, the MTC is an Eastern Reformed Church. At the same time as it continues in the apostolic episcopal tradition and ancient oriental practices, it has much in common with the Oriental Orthodox Churches. Thus, it is regarded as a "bridging Church".