The St. Thomas Christians would have been Chaldeans if not for the Portuguese Inquisition

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In the history of the St. Thomas Christians of India, the 1500’s was a major turning point for this ancient community. Before this point in history the St.Thomas Christians followed the East Syriac Rite and were members of the Church of the East. However the Church of the East split in two in the year 1552, with the Chaldean Catholic Church reuniting with Rome from that point onward. The second Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Mar Abdisho IV had sent the bishop Mar Abraham to India, whom would become the last East Syrian bishop of India.

Pope Pius IV had approved and appointed Mar Abraham as the Chaldean Catholic Metropolitan to the ancient East Syrian See of Angamaly of the St. Thomas Christians. The St. Thomas Christians were overjoyed to have an East Syrian metropolitan (there were often many hiatus, when native archdeacons would rule Angamaly, due to the lack of a bishop sent from the Middle East). Upon Mar Abraham’s death, Archdeacon George was to be named the first native St. Thomas Christian to be ordained as metropolitan of India and the ancient See of Angmaly. Letters between Mar Abraham and Pope Pius IV express the popes approval of Archdeacon George as the successor to India.

During this same time period the Portuguese had arrived in India and set up the Archdiocese in Goa, which was north of Malabar, where the St. Thomas Christians inhabited. The Archbishop Dom Menezes of Goa and the Jesuits under him were not fond of Mar Abraham nor the East Syrian liturgical traditions of the St. Thomas Christians which they deemed heretical. Numerous interactions between Mar Abraham and Archbishop Menezes show Portuguese disapproval towards the Church of St. Thomas and constant pressuring of Mar Abraham to reform the ancient church, which Mar Abraham ignored.

Upon Mar Abraham’s death, Archdeacon George was not made Metropolitan of Angamaly but instead the Portuguese Inquistion suppressed the St. Thomas Christians and spoiled the ancient East Syrian Rite of Malabar by introducing heavy Latinizations and reformations in what was known as the Synod of Daimper. In order to desolate the East Syrian tradition and the culture of the St. Thomas Christians further, they destroyed and burned all Syrian texts and liturgical documents. This caused mass hostility among the St. Thomas Christians and led to the revolt against Menezes and the Portuguese known as the Leaning Cross Oath in which the ancient church and community which had been unified for centuries was divided in two and further divided numerous times after in the coming centuries. If it was not for the works of Menezes and the Jesuits whom accompanied him in the inquistion, it is likely that today the St. Thomas Christians would have been one unified community and church as the Metrolpoltian See of Angamaly under the Chaldean Catholic Church.
 
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When you’re around for 2k years you’re bound to have some blunders unfortunately.
 
Your quite right, I just thought I’d share this sad point in the history of my people. I am happy to say tho that the Catholic Church acknowledged this in the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia in which they state that the Church did not approve of the works of Menezes and the Jesuits and that they and the Portuguese forever spoiled the ancient rite and tradition of Malabar.
 
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A portion of them. After the Leaning Cross Oath, Menezes was able to take control of large portion of the St. Thomas Christians, with a minority of them in rebellion. The rebellion would consecrate a native Archdeacon as metropolitan of India and eventually come into communion with the Syrian Orthodox Church and adopt the West Syriac Rite. The other half controlled by Menezes would follow a heavily Latinized East Syriac Rite.

In the late 1800’s the followers of the Latinized East Syriac Rite were granted their own particular diocese and native hierarchy. This group is today known as the Syro Malabar Catholic Church with five million followers in India and across the world. It is considered a Major-Archeparchial Eastern Catholic Church. The Church has taken great strides to restore the East Syriac Rite (a movement which was also heavily supported by Rome).

The followers of the West Syriac Rite formed the Malankara Church which broke into numerous factions in the centuries following the Leaning Cross Oath. The two largest factions today are the Jacobite Syrian Church in communion with the Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch and the Malankara Indian Orthodox Church. Both churches have around five million members today and follow the same traditions liturgically but are simply split on affiliation.

In the early 1900’s another group broke off from the Malankara Church and reunited with Rome. This group is known as the Syro Malankara Catholic Church with around 500,000 members following the West Syriac Rite. It is considered an Eastern Catholic Major-Archeparchial Church.

As can be seen, once a united church and community is now split into numerous factions and affiliations.
 
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That’s very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

What, if any, influence did British colonization have on the splits? Were there differences between the groups on cooperation with British authorities?
 
The British played a big role (tho not directly) in one of the divisions of the Malankara Church which I did not mention earlier. In the 1700’s, some members of the Malankara Church were greatly influenced by Anglicans and Protestants in British India. They split off from the Malankara Church and named themselves the Mar Thoma Syrian Church (St. Thomas Syrian Church) which follows an Anglicanized West Syrian Rite and is apart of the Anglican Communion with about 2 million members world wide.

Besides this, the British didn’t play much of a role in the ecclesial divisions and matters of the Churches of St. Thomas. The adherents and their clergy, in communication often with the Catholic Church and the Syriac Orthodox Church, shaped the direction in which the ancient community of St. Thomas went.
 
It makes me so mad to hear of the way they trashed and defiled their ancient East Syrian Rite and turned it into a Latinized abomination.

What they did was both sacrilegous and blasphemous.

I’m so happy that Rome, since Pope Leo XIII, has respected the Eastern Rites and absolutely forbidden any Latinizing of those Rites.
 
Yes it was a terrible act by the Portuguese Jesuits. There was actually a bishop named Mar Joseph Sulaqa sent by the East Syrian Church before Mar Abraham who was supposed to be the Metropolitan of Angamaly but the Portuguese captured and imprisoned him at Goa because of his “Nestorian Error”. Mar Sulaqa never reached Malabar but instead was sent to Portugal after his capture and from there to Rome where he died.

Mar Abraham originally suffered the same fate but after his capture and transport to Portugal, he was able to escape on route in Mozambique. From there Mar Abraham went back to the Middle East and spoke to the Patriarch of the Chaldeans of what had happened to Mar Sulaqa in India. The Patriarch of the Chaldeans sent him to Rome and Mar Abraham confided with the Pope. The Pope than confirmed him as the Metropolitan of Angamaly and sent him back to India.

Even with a letter of order from the Pope, Mar Abraham arrived in Goa and again was detained by the Portuguese Jesuits. However he escaped and reached Malabar where he was able to hold the See of Angamaly until his death.
 
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I read somewhere that one of the culture clashes revolved around the fact that the St Thomas Christians had adopted some of the Indian caste ideas and were loath to permit lower caste people into their churches.
 
Thomas48 said:
If it was not for the works of Menezes and the Jesuits whom accompanied him in the inquistion, it is likely that today the St. Thomas Christians would have been one unified community and church as the Metrolpoltian See of Angamaly under the Chaldean Catholic Church.
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Its really difficult to say what would have happened. The Goa Archdiocese was and is Latin Rite and is quite large, what would have been the relationship between Angamely and Goa under those circumstances?

I don’t think anyone can say with certainty, there are a lot of moving parts.

I got a book upstairs in my library, “what if”, which speculates what would have come down if Churchill had been killed before WWII, if the battle of Tours would have turned out different, etc. All very interesting, but it could have easily turned out worse for the St Thomas Christians.
 
poche said:
I read somewhere that one of the culture clashes revolved around the fact that the St Thomas Christians had adopted some of the Indian caste ideas and were loath to permit lower caste people into their churches.
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Parts of Europe had much of the same ideas as the “untouchable” concept on the Subcontinent.

The Cagot peoples in the Pyrenees area were highly looked down upon, merely on the basis of their ancestry. But the Cagots really weren’t any different that the other people genetically , religiously or linguistically. No one knows why they were abused for centuries.
 
The St. Thomas Christians or Nasranis (as they are called in Kerala) were historically very high on the caste ladder and enjoyed rights and privileges that even some castes of Hindu’s didn’t experience. The ruling empire of Kerala known as the “Chera” were actually very welcome to minority communities who lived peacefully under their domain. The privileges and social status of the community is recorded on copper plates granted from the Chera called the Tharisapalli Copper plates (849 A.D) still in existence today. At one point in history the Nasrani even had their own vassal kingdom under the Cheras called “Villarvattom”. Pope Eugene IV actually sent a letter to the Nasrani King of Villarvattom in the year 1439.

Copper Plates:
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This high social status benefited the Nasrani greatly in wealth, trade, and quality of life. Nonetheless they were still apart of the caste system which is an evil of itself. The Portuguese noted this and it was actually one of the positive reforms pushed at the Synod of Diamper (though it somewhat lessened the status of the community in society). However the Portuguese had a different motive for reforming the caste ideology of the community and that has alot to do with my people the Knanaya or Southists who are a small minority within the St.Thomas Christians.

According to folk history, the Knanaya are said to be descendants of Judeo-Christians who came to India under the leadership of an East Syrian merchant named Thomas of Cana sometime between the 4th and 8th century. The reason for the migration or even if their was a migration is not agreed upon by scholars (some believe the Knanaya were simply a caste among the St. Thomas Christians) but nonetheless this legend was an integral part of the folk history of the Nasrani. My community became apart of the larger St. Thomas Christians but maintained their own identity and culture and lived on the southern side of Cranganore (historically the region inhabited by the Nasrani) while the larger St. Thomas Christian community inhabited the Northern side, this gave way to the names Northist and Southist Christians. In some areas the Knanaya even had their own distinct churches. It should be noted however, that even tho both groups lived side by side, they did not intermarry.

One of the Portughese bishops Francis Roz even states that the Knanaya had their own copper plate grant called the Thomas of Cana copper plate but this was taken to Portugal by the Franciscans in Kerala. In Francis Roz’s report (1604) he writes down the history of the community and the high caste privileges and status they enjoyed.

During 1400-1600s, Portuguese clergy and laymen noted this division and saw that the two communities of Northist and Southist had a great enmity and hatred towards each other for some reason during this point of history. Bishop Dom Menezis attempted to force the two groups (whom they deemed as castes or lineages) to share places of worship but this led to bloodshed and community brawls in the streets. Menezis caste based reforms tried to assuage this issue but it simply made it worse.
 
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I agree, of course it is impossible to know how exactly the events would play out. However in my opinion if the Archdiocese of Goa and the Portuguese clergy had accepted the orders of the Pope, the Metropoltianate of Angamaly could have existed under the Chaldean Catholic Church but one can only imagine the trials it would face as the Europeans fought for dominion in India in the upcoming decades.
 
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