When speaking of India’s religious makeup, one is usually most familiar with the great “Eastern” religions of Hinduism and Buddhism, as well as with India’s long history of Islam. It may be one of history’s best kept secrets then, that India possesses a Christian history as old as Christianity itself. In fact, there remains to the present day a Christian community in the South Indian state of Kerala that traces its heritage in continuity back to the Apostolic foundation of Saint Thomas, one of the Twelve Apostles of Christ Himself. These “St. Thomas Christians,” also called *Nazranis* (Nazarenes), maintained their distinct identity within the larger ethnic and cultural context of South India for roughly two millennia. From this group, the Church affirming Non-Chalcedonian theology emerged. This Church, the *Malankara* Orthodox Church, while having endured its share of struggles throughout history, has emerged as a flourishing Church; growing far beyond her original borders to other parts of India as well as to the Middle East and Europe, even to the United States.
The Indian Church maintains the tradition that the Apostle Thomas came to India following the trade routes which existed at the time of Christ. According to the early Syriac document, “The Acts of Thomas,” the Apostle preached throughout the Indian subcontinent, performed miracles, converted many Hindus to Christ, and was finally martyred at Mylapore near the present-day city of Chennai (formerly Madras). Tradition also holds that in the midst of his journey, in the year 52 A.D., St. Thomas arrived on the Malabar Coast (present-day Kerala) and established seven and a half Churches: at Kodungallur, Kollam, Niranam, Nilackal, Kokkamangalam, Kottakkayal, Palayoor, along with a smaller “half” Church at Thiruvancode. Collectively, this Christian community, the *St. Thomas Christians*, would continue to grow, developing into a separate class within the wider cultural and caste system of the region. These Christians would remain in relative isolation from the rest of the Christendom, particularly in the Roman or Byzantine world. Isolated as they were, though, the St. Thomas Christians would also come to be defined by their relationship with distant ecclesiastical authorities.
In the early history of the *Malankara* Church (Malankara being another name for the region particularly around the island of “Maliankara” off the coast of Malabar), the Church’s isolation resulted in a constant struggle to maintain the Apostolic faith and continuity of priesthood. This community, fortunately, was sustained at various times in hierarchy and Sacraments by a long-standing relationship with the Syriac Churches of the East. The native Christians of Kerala came to identify themselves with the Syriac Churches so much that they would take on yet another descriptor for themselves: “Syrian Christians.” On several occasions, migrants, including priests and bishops from various parts of the Syriac world, would arrive in Malankara and integrate within the existing Christian community. During this time, the Church in India was led by Archdeacons. Whatever the theological and liturgical disposition possessed by the Malankara community, the people themselves remained united until the coming of great European colonial powers, who brought schism for the first time to the Church in India.
Each major European power brought to Kerala its respective theological and hierarchical bias. The arrival of Vasco Da Gama and the Portuguese to India also signaled the first contact of Latin Rite Catholicism with Malankara. The heavy-handed tactics of the Portuguese to bring the alleged “heretic” St. Thomas Christians under the jurisdiction of the Pope of Rome brought the followers of the Orthodox faith together to swear an Oath to stay true to the Apostolic Faith at the Coonan Cross. The leaders of the Church in India also decided to exert their autonomy and laid their hands on Archdeacon Thomas and elevated him as the first Malankara Metropolitan, Marthoma I.
Furthermore, the Church in India pursued a formal relationship between Malankara and the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch in the mid-17th century. Thus marked the first split amongst the St. Thomas Christians, between the Orthodox Christians in communion with Antioch and the community which chose to enter into communion with Rome. Years later, after the arrival of the English and inspired by Protestant theology, another schism between the Orthodox and a Reformed party within the Church would occur. The product of this became what is known as the Marthoma Syrian Church, whose adherents to this day use a modified Syriac-rite liturgy imbued with Reformed theology.
In 1912, the Malankara Orthodox Church was granted autocephaly when Baselios Paulose I was elevated as Catholicos of the East, successor to the Apostolic Throne of Saint Thomas, and Primate of the Malankara Orthodox Christians by Patriarch Ignatius Abdul Messiah II. During his consecration, the Patriarch also issued two encyclicals stating that all the authorities and privileges enjoyed by the Patriarch in the Church as its head were given to the Catholicos also. Also, by the consecration of the Catholicos, the Church in India asserted and declared its full autonomy and became a fully autocephalous Church. Unfortunately, this led to a schism in the Holy Church, with one side supporting the Catholicos and the other, the Patriarch.
This led to decades of litigation between the two sides, eventually ending up in the presence of the Indian Supreme Court. On September 12, 1958, the Supreme Court of India recognized the validity of the Catholicate and unanimously declared that the Patriarch of Antioch does not have any temporal authority over the Malankara Orthodox Church. Moved by the final judgment of the Supreme Court of India, the patriarchal faction unanimously recommended to Patriarch Ignatius Yakob III to accept the Catholicos as the head of the Indian church. In December 1958, the Patriarch and the Catholicos subjected themselves to the 1934 constitution of the Malankara Orthodox Church and accepted each other by exchanging letters.
The peace in the Holy Church continued without much problem until the demise of His Holiness Catholicos Baselios Geevarghese II in 1964. At that time, the Malankara Association elected Mar Augen Thimothios as the next Catholicos. The Church extended an official invitation to the Patriarch of Antioch for him to preside over the consecration of the new Catholicos. His Holiness the Patriarch accepted the invitation of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church and came to India to preside over the consecration of His Holiness Catholicos Baselios Augen I.
Unfortunately, in 1975, the Church was again brought into turmoil due to an excommunication from the Patriarch of Antioch of His Holiness Catholicos Baselios Augen, which led to the creation of two factions again.
By the Grace of God, on July 3, 2017, the Honorable Supreme Court of India offered a verdict for all generations that there is truly one Church in Malankara, that is to be administered according to the 1934 Constitution of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. In this verdict, the Holy Church remains hopeful that true peace and unity will be possible, and we all will fulfill the High Priestly Prayer of our Lord, “that they all may be one” (John 17:21).
