This Booklet gives in an expanded form addresses given by the author to groups of students, young people and audiences outside of Travancore. In putting the matter in a book form, the author has made liberal use of A History of the Syrian Church in India, by F.E. Keay and A History of the Mar Thoma Church and its Doctrines by K.K. Kuruvilla. For those who desire to know the main facts about the origin and present position of the old Syrian Christian community in South India, this booklet will, I trust, be of help.

Chapter I

The St. Thomas Tradition

By time-honoured tradition the beginnings of Christianity in India go back to the visit of St. Thomas, the Apostle. He is believed to have landed at Cranganore (ancient name Mouziris), an important seaport on the Malabar coast, in the year a.d. 52. In true Apostolic tradition he is said to have preached first to the Jews who had settled in and around Cochin, and then to have turned to work among the Hindus. As the result of his preaching and the many miracles he wrought, many high-caste Hindus are said to have accepted Christianity. The tradition goes on to say that he founded seven churches for the worship of the Christians, and ordained Presbyters from four leading families. The seven churches ascribed to St. Thomas are : (1) Maliankara (Cranganore); (2) Palur (Chavakad); (3) Parur (4) Gokamangalom (5) Niranam (6) Chayal (Nilakal); (7) Kalyan (Quilon). All these except Chayal are on or near the coast.

From Malabar the Apostle is said to have gone to the east coast and preached Christ. The Brahmins became jealous of his success and he was speared to death, thus dying a martyr's death on St. Thomas Mount, a place eight miles south-west of Madras. According to another story .................

Chapter II

If the picture of the beginnings of Christianity in Malabar has to be drawn upon a background which is entirely traditional, its further history for many more centuries is sketchy, dependent upon tradition, occasionally lit up with historical evidences. How did the newly-established Church fare in this stronghold of Hinduism? How did it govern itself, how far did it preserve the faith that was given to it? One wishes to know much but can learn little. The history of the Christians in Malabar in the last half of the first century and well on to the close of the second century is unknown. The veil is lifted with the reputed visit of Pantaenus, who is said to have been sent by Demetrius of Alexandria at the request of the Christians of Malabar. Pantaenus visited Malabar in A.D.189.....

Among the travellers and itinerant preachers who visited Malabar in the middle ages a number of Roman Catholics are mentioned. John of Monte Corbino, a Franciscan friar, had been sent to China by the Roman Church as its first missionary and bishop. On his way to China he stayed in India for thirteen months. He was a contemporary of Marco Polo. He speaks of India as the place ‘wherein stands the Church of St. Thomas’...

The Jesuits with whom was entrusted the work of carrying out the decrees of Diamper, in their efforts to make them effective in the various congregations, offended many by their harshness. The appeals which the Syrians made to Rome were unheeded. Discontent was smouldering and in the year 1653 something happened which fanned it into flame. One of the Eastern Patriarchs sent to India a representative of that church, in the person of Bishop Ahatalla. He was taken hold of by the Portuguese before landing in Cochin, shipped off to Goa, and nothing more was heard of him................

The Portuguese power in India was displaced by that of the Dutch and towards the close of the eighteenth century the British East India Company became the dominating western power in India. In the beginning of the nineteenth century, Travancore and Cochin entered into treaty relations with the British. According to one of its terms a British Resident was to live in Travancore.

In the year 1836 the work of the Mission of Help sent by the C.M.S. terminated. But was it a failure? We have seen in the last chapter the establishment of the Anglican communion in Travancore and Cochin, which was joined by numerous Syrian families. One work of the missionaries was the encouragement of the reading of the Bible in Malayalam. Once the Bible is in the hands of the people, it does its work. The Seminary in Kottayam and schools in the villages had helped the spread of elementary education to a certain extent. There were two Syrian priests associated with the missionaries in the work of the Seminary and the spiritual life and teachings emphasized by the missionaries had a great appeal to them.

There are those who say that the Mar Thoma Syrian Church is a schismatic and heretical Church which broke away from the Jacobite Church in the nineteenth century and is thus only a century old. This view may be correct if we look at things from the background of the nineteenth century only. Abraham Malpan led a reform movement in the Jacobite Syrian Church and had to leave the Jacobite communion as he and his followers were excommunicated by Cheppat Mar Dionysius because of the reformed teachings which he held. Later, Mathews Mar Athanasius was excommunicated by the Patriarch of Antioch because he was supposed to hold new teachings and also refused to accept the authority of the Patriarch over the Malankara Church.....