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Saint Thomas Christians

This article is about the people. For their denominations, see Saint Thomas Christian denominations.

Saint Thomas Christians
(മാർ തോമാ നസ്രാണി)
Mar Thoma Cross
Total population
Approx. 6,000,000 (2018)[1]
Regions with significant populations
India (Kerala, Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai); UAE (Dubai); Oman; Kuwait; USA (New York metropolitan area, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, Tampa, Detroit, Atlanta, Philadelphia, New Jersey, Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay Area); Canada (Toronto, Edmonton, Whitehorse); UK (London, Birmingham); The Netherlands (Amsterdam)[2][3]
Languages
Vernacular: Malayalam
Liturgical: Syriac (Aramaic)[4]
Religion
Christian
Saint Thomas Christian denominations

Catholic

Syro-Malabar Church (East Syriac Rite)

Syro-Malankara Church (West Syriac Rite)

Oriental Orthodox (West Syriac Rite)

Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

Jacobite Syrian Christian Church

Malabar Independent Syrian Church

Assyrian Church of the East (East Syriac Rite)

Chaldean Syrian Church


Oriental Protestant Christianity (Reformed-West Syriac Rite)

Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church

St. Thomas Evangelical Church of India

Protestant

Saint Thomas Anglicans of the Church of South India (C.S.I. Rite)
Pentecostal Saint Thomas Christians (Riteless/Nonliturgical)
Related ethnic groups
Malayalis,[5] Dravidians,[6] Indo-Aryan peoples,[7] Knanaya, Cochin Jews
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Saint Thomas Christians
History
Religion
Prominent persons
Culture

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 (Malabar region),[8] who, for the most part, employ the Eastern and Western liturgical rites of Syriac Christianity.[9] They trace their origins to the evangelistic activity of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century.[10][11] 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.[10] They are Malayalis and their mother tongue is Malayalam.[5][6] Nasrani or Nazarene is a Syriac term for Christians, who were among the first converts to Christianity in the Near East.

Historically, this community was organised as the Province of India of the Church of the East by Patriarch Timothy I (780–823 AD) in the eighth century, served by bishops and a local dynastic archdeacon.[9][12][13] In the 14th century, the Church of the East declined in the Near East, due to persecution from Tamerlane.[14][15][16][17][18] Portuguese colonial overtures to bring St Thomas Christians into the Latin Catholic Church, administered by their Padroado system in the 16th century, led to the first of several rifts (schisms) in the community.[19][20][21] The attempts of the Portuguese culminated in the Synod of Diamper, formally subjugating them to the Portuguese Padroado and imposing upon them the Roman Rite of worship. The Portuguese oppression provoked a violent resistance among the Thomasine Christians, that took expression in the Coonan Cross Oath protest in 1653. This led to the permanent schism among the Thomas' Christians of India, leading to the formation of Puthenkur or Puthenkūttukār ("New allegiance" ) and Paḻayakūṟ or Pazhayakūr ("Old allegiance") factions.[22] The Paḻayakūṟ comprise the present day Syro-Malabar Church and Chaldean Syrian Church which continue to employ the original East Syriac Rite liturgy.[9][23][24][25] The Puthenkur group, who continued to resist the Catholic missionaries, organized themselves as the independent Malankara Church and entered into a new communion with the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch, inheriting from them the West Syriac Rite, replacing the old East Syriac Rite liturgy.[26][9][27]

The Chaldean Syrian Church based in Thrissur represents the continuation of the traditional pre-sixteenth century church of Saint Thomas Christians in India.[28][29] It forms the Indian archdiocese of the Iraq-based Assyrian Church of the East, which is one of the descendant churches of the Church of the East. They were a minority faction within the Paḻayakūṟ faction, which joined with the Church of the East Bishop during the 1870s.[30]

The Eastern Catholic faction is in full communion with the Holy See in Rome. This includes the aforementioned Syro-Malabar Church, which follows the East Syriac Rite, as well as the West Syriac Syro-Malankara Catholic Church.[31][9] The Oriental Orthodox faction includes the autocephalous Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church and Malabar Independent Syrian Church along with the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church, an integral part of the Syriac Orthodox Church headed by the Patriarch of Antioch.[26]

Oriental Protestant denominations include the Mar Thoma Syrian Church and the St. Thomas Evangelical Church of India.[32] Being a reformed church influenced by British Anglican missionaries in the 1800s, the Mar Thoma Church employs a reformed variant of the liturgical West Syriac Rite.[33][34] The St. Thomas Evangelical Church of India is an evangelical faction that split off from the Marthoma Church in 1961.[35] Meanwhile, the CSI Syrian Christians represents those Malankara Syrian Christians, who joined the Anglican Church in 1836 and eventually became part of the Church of South India, a United Protestant denomination. The C.S.I. is in full communion with the Mar Thoma Syrian Church.[36][37][38][39] By the 20th century, various Syrian Christians joined Pentecostal and other evangelical denominations like the Kerala Brethren, Indian Pentecostal Church of God, Assemblies of God, among others. They are known as Pentecostal Saint Thomas Christians.[40][41]

  1. ^ Thomas (2018), p. 4.
  2. ^ "Eparchy of Saint Thomas the Apostle of Chicago (Syro-Malabarese)". Catholic-Hierarchy.org. David M. Cheney. Retrieved 23 January 2015.
  3. ^ "The Stcei". Indianchristianity.com. Retrieved 24 September 2017.
  4. ^ Ross, Israel J. (1979). "Ritual and Music in South India: Syrian Christian Liturgical Music in Kerala". Asian Music. 11 (1): 80–98. doi:10.2307/833968. JSTOR 833968.
  5. ^ a b King, Daniel (12 December 2018). The Syriac World. Routledge. p. 784. ISBN 978-1-317-48211-6.
  6. ^ a b Considine, John Joseph; Kernan, Thomas (1942). Across a World. Longmans, Green. p. 67.
  7. ^ Thomas, Sonja (October 2011). "Chapter 4: Bodies of Difference: Aryan Racial Origins and Sexual Morality". From Chattas to Churidars: Syrian Christian Religious Minorities in a Secular Indian State (PhD thesis). Rutgers University. Retrieved 26 January 2024.
  8. ^ Perczel (2013), p. 416.
  9. ^ a b c d e Brock (2011a).
  10. ^ a b Fahlbusch, Erwin; Bromiley, Geoffrey William; Lochman, Jan Milic (2008). The Encyclodedia of Christianity. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 285. ISBN 978-0-8028-2417-2.
  11. ^ Israel Museum (1995). The Jews of India: A Story of Three Communities. UPNE. p. 27. ISBN 978-965-278-179-6.
  12. ^ Baum & Winkler (2003), p. 52.
  13. ^ Bundy, David D. (2011). "Timotheos I". In Sebastian P. Brock; Aaron M. Butts; George A. Kiraz; Lucas Van Rompay (eds.). Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage: Electronic Edition. Gorgias Press. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
  14. ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20221212130216/https://dailyhistory.org/How_did_Timur_change_the_history_of_the_world%3F
  15. ^ "10 Terrors of the Tyrant Tamerlane". 15 January 2018. Archived from the original on 15 September 2024.
  16. ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20240902072605/https://cnewa.org/web/20240902072605/https://cnewa.org/eastern-christian-churches/the-assyrian-church-of-the-east/
  17. ^ "The Forgotten Church of the East | SIL in Eurasia".
  18. ^ "The Church of the East: Two Thousand Years of Martyrdom and Mission". 27 January 2016. Archived from the original on 17 April 2024.
  19. ^ Frykenberg (2008), p. 111.
  20. ^ "Christians of Saint Thomas". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 9 February 2010.
  21. ^ Frykenberg (2008), pp. 134–136.
  22. ^ Perczel, István (September 2014). "Garshuni Malayalam: A Witness to an Early Stage of Indian Christian Literature". Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies. 17 (2): 291.
  23. ^ Encyclopedia Britannica (2011). Synod of Diamper. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica Inc. Retrieved 23 December 2011.
  24. ^ For the Acts and Decrees of the Synod cf. Michael Geddes, "A Short History of the Church of Malabar Together with the Synod of Diamper &c." London, 1694; Repr. in George Menachery (ed.), Indian Church History Classics, Vol.1, Ollur 1998, pp. 33–112.
  25. ^ F. L. Cross; E. A. Livingstone, eds. (2009) [2005]. "Addai and Mari, Liturgy of". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (3rd rev. ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780192802903.
  26. ^ a b Joseph (2011).
  27. ^ "Kerala Syrian Christian, Apostle in India, The tomb of the Apostle, Persian Church, Syond of Diamper – Coonan Cross Oath, Subsequent divisions and the Nasrani People". Nasranis. 13 February 2007.
  28. ^ Brock (2011c).
  29. ^ George, V. C. The Church in India Before and After the Synod of Diamper. Prakasam Publications. He wished to propagate Nestorianism within the community. Misunderstanding arose between him and the Assyrian Patriarch, and from the year 1962 onwards the Chaldean Syrian Church in Malabar has had two sections within it, one known as the Patriarch party and the other as the Bishop's party.
  30. ^ "Church of the East in India". Archived from the original on 15 May 2011. Retrieved 2 October 2010.
  31. ^ Brock (2011b).
  32. ^ South Asia. Missions Advanced Research and Communication Center. 1980. p. 114. ISBN 978-0-912552-33-0. The Mar Thoma Syrian Church, which represents the Protestant Reform movement, broke away from the Syrian Orthodox Church in the 19th century.
  33. ^ Fenwick (2011b).
  34. ^ "Ecumenical Relations". marthomanae.org. 9 May 2016. Archived from the original on 1 July 2017. Retrieved 26 June 2017.
  35. ^ "Mission & Vision". St. Thomas Evangelical Church of India (steci) is an episcopal Church. Archived from the original on 18 January 2021. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  36. ^ Dalal, Roshen (18 April 2014). The Religions of India: A Concise Guide to Nine Major Faiths. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-81-8475-396-7.
  37. ^ Neill (2002), pp. 247–251.
  38. ^ Fahlbusch, Erwin; Lochman, Jan Milic; Bromiley, Geoffrey William; Mbiti, John; Pelikan, Jaroslav; Vischer, Lukas (1999). The Encyclopedia of Christianity. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. pp. 687–688. ISBN 978-90-04-11695-5.
  39. ^ Melton, J. Gordon; Baumann, Martin (21 September 2010). Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices, 2nd Edition [6 volumes]. ABC-CLIO. p. 707. ISBN 978-1-59884-204-3.
  40. ^ Anderson, Allan; Tang, Edmond (2005). Asian and Pentecostal: The Charismatic Face of Christianity in Asia. OCMS. pp. 192–193, 195–196, 203–204. ISBN 978-1-870345-43-9.
  41. ^ Bergunder, Michael (6 June 2008). The South Indian Pentecostal Movement in the Twentieth Century. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. pp. 15–16, 26–30, 37–57. ISBN 978-0-8028-2734-0.

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