Malabar Christians
Malabar Christians. The Christians of the state of Kerala on the Malabar (SW) coast of India. They number over 2 million, now divided into several communities (see SYRIAN CHURCHES). They are known as ‘ Thomas Christians’ from their claim—taken seriously by some W. scholars too—that their ancestors were evangelized by St Thomas. In any case, by the 6th cent. there was a Church in the region using Syriac in its liturgy and dependent for bishops on the (Nestorian) catholikos of Baghdad. After heavy-handed missionary work by the Portuguese, the Church was formally purged of Nestorianism, brought under Roman obedience, and thoroughly Latinized at the synod of Diamper (Udayamperur, near Cochin) in 1599. Latin government of the Church continued as a source of tension down to the 20th cent. There was a defection of a large body eventually to the Syrian Orthodox in the 17th cent.; this schism gave rise to another in the 19th cent. with the creation of the Mar Thoma Church. The Catholics are now styled the ‘Syro-Malabar Church’, having been granted their own metropolitanate of Ernakulam with Indian bishops in 1923.
More From encyclopedia.com
Orthodoxy , Orthodoxy
African Orthodox Church, Inc
Albanian Orthodox Diocese of America
American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church
American Exarcha… Lesotho , POPULATION 2,207,954
CATHOLIC 50 percent
EVANGELICAL 25 percent
ANGLICAN 10 percent
AFRICAN INDIGENOUS BELIEFS 9 percent
OTHER PROTESTANT 5 percent
M… Church Of England , Church of England, the established church of England and the mother church of the Anglican Communion.
Organization and Doctrine
The clergy of the chu… Episcopal Church , Episcopal Church, Anglican church of the United States. Its separate existence as an American ecclesiastical body with its own episcopate began in 17… Saint Cyprian , Thascius Caecilianus Cyprianus
Thascius Caecilianus Cyprianus
Thascius Caecilianus Cyprianus (died 258) is known as St. Cyprian. As bishop of Carthag… Anglican Communion , Anglican Communion, the body of churches in all parts of the world that are in communion with the Church of England (see England, Church of). The com…
You Might Also Like
NEARBY TERMS
Malabar Christians