Saint Thomas Christians

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

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 Church of the 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 converts to the Roman faith are called Paḻayakūṟ while those who remained steadfast to their old Syrian faith are Puthenkur.^[23][24] The Paḻayakūṟ comprise the present day Syro-Malabar Church and Chaldean Syrian Church which continue to employ the East Syriac Rite liturgy.^{[9][25][26][27]} 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.^[28][9][29]

The Chaldean Syrian Church based in Thrissur represents the continuation of the traditional pre-sixteenth century church of Saint Thomas Christians in India.^[30][31] 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.^[32]

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.^[33][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.^[28]

Oriental Protestant denominations include the Mar Thoma Syrian Church and the St. Thomas Evangelical Church of India.^[34] 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.^[35][36] The St. Thomas Evangelical Church of India is an evangelical faction that split off from the Marthoma Church in 1961.^[37] 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.^{[38][39][40][41]} 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.^[42][43]