Syrian Christians of Kerala
Eastern icon of Thomas the Apostle
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| Regions with significant populations | |
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| India (Kerala, Bangalore, Mumbai); UAE (Dubai); Oman; Kuwait; USA (New York City metropolitan area, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, Tampa, Detroit, Atlanta, Philadelphia, New Jersey, Los Angeles); Europe - UK (London, Birmingham) The Netherlands (Amsterdam) Canada (Toronto, Edmonton) | |
| Languages | |
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Vernacular: Malayalam Liturgical: Syriac (Aramaic) |
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| Religion | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Cochin Jews,Malayalis, Knanaya |
Vernacular: Malayalam
The Saint Thomas Christians, also called Syrian Christians or Malankara Nasrani or Nasrani, are a community of Indian Syriac Christians from Kerala, India, who trace their origins to the evangelistic activity of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century. The term Syrian relates not to their ethnicity but to their historical, religious, and liturgical connection to Syriac Christianity.
Historically, the Saint Thomas Christian community was part of the Church of the East, centered in Persia. They were organised as the Province of India in the 8th century, served by Nestorian bishops and a local dynastic Archdeacon. In the 16th century the overtures of the Portuguese padroado to bring the Saint Thomas Christians into the Catholic Church led to the first of several rifts in the community. It finally led to the establishment of an Eastern Catholic (Syro-Malabar Catholic Church) church in Malankara and the remaining constituted an independent Oriental Orthodox (Malankara Church) faction. The Syro-Malabar Catholic Church follows the East Syrian Rite Liturgy traditionally attributed to Saints Addai and Mari which dates back to 3rd-century Edessa. The Malankara Church follows the West Syrian Rite Liturgy traditionally attributed to Saint James, and is an ancient rite of the Early Christian Church of Jerusalem. Since that time further splits have occurred, and the Saint Thomas Christians are now divided into several different Eastern Catholic, Oriental Orthodox, Protestant, and independent bodies, each with their own liturgies and traditions.
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Wikipedia