New Delhi [India], November 5 (HBTV): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday met with the head of the Syro-Malabar Church, Major Archbishop His Beatitude Most Rev. Mar Raphael Thattil, His Grace Archbishop Dr. Kuriakose Bharanikulangara, and other members of the clergy.
The Prime Minister shared details of the meeting on X, stating, ‘Had a wonderful interaction with the head of the Syro-Malabar Church, Major Archbishop His Beatitude Most Rev. Mar Raphael Thattil, His Grace Archbishop Dr. Kuriakose Bharanikulangara and others.’
The Syro-Malabar Church, along with other Churches of the St. Thomas tradition in India, traces its origin to St. Thomas, the apostle of India, who evangelised the country between 42 and 72 AD during his missionary journeys.
Following the visit of Pantenus, an Alexandrian scholar, in 189 AD, Indian Christians began maintaining contact with the Church of the East in the Persian Empire and receiving bishops appointed by the Seleucian or Chaldean Patriarch throughout the medieval period. In the seventh century, the Indian Church was granted metropolitan status, signifying the recognition of its autonomy.
From that period onward, the community of St. Thomas Christians maintained loyalty to the Persian Church. In the modern era, from the 16th to the 19th century, the St. Thomas Christians came under the Portuguese Padroado and Roman Propaganda Fide jurisdictions. During this time, the Church underwent major changes, especially following the Synod of Diamper in 1599, which affected its oriental traditions, Syriac liturgy, and Indian customs.
The subsequent Coonan Cross Oath of 1653, taken in resistance to Portuguese ecclesiastical authority, resulted in divisions among the St. Thomas Christians. Those who remained loyal to the Roman Catholic Church came to be known as the Syro-Malabar Church, while others aligned with the Antiochean jurisdiction in the 19th century. In 1930, a small faction of the Orthodox Syrian Malankara Church joined the Catholic Church, forming the Syro-Malankara Church.
(ANI)