Christianity in Kerala

{{See also|Saint Thomas Christians}}

Image:Kodungaloor Mar Thoma Church.jpg where the relics of the right hand of the apostle is kept and venerated. This new church is built where it is believed that the first of the seven churches was built by Thomas in AD 52.]]

The tradition of origin among Saint Thomas Christians relates to the arrival of Thomas, one of the 12 disciples of Jesus, at the ancient seaport Muziris on the Kerala coast in AD 52.{{Cite web|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/how-christianity-came-to-india-kerala-180958117/|title = The Surprisingly Early History of Christianity in India}}{{cite web |url=http://stthoma.com/ |title=Thomas the Apostole |website=stthoma.com |access-date=11 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110208073816/http://stthoma.com/ |archive-date=8 February 2011 |url-status=dead}}{{citation|date=2015-12-31|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9781400872589-003|work=Syrian Christians in a Muslim Society: An Interpretation|pages=1–98|place=Princeton|publisher=Princeton University Press|doi=10.1515/9781400872589-003|isbn=978-1-4008-7258-9|access-date=2020-11-04|title=Syrian Christians in Muslim Society}}{{Cite journal|last=Jullien|first=Christelle|date=2011-05-15|title=Origin of Christianity in India. A historiographical Critique. Delhi, Media House, 2007, 392 p.|journal=Abstracta Iranica|volume=31|doi=10.4000/abstractairanica.39686|issn=0240-8910|doi-access=free}}

It is also possible for Aramaic-speaking Jews from Galilee to make a trip to Kerala in the 1st century. The Cochin Jews are known to have existed in Kerala around that time.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}}

File:Arakuzha Syrian Catholic Church.jpg was founded in 999|248x248px]]

The earliest known source connecting the apostle to India is the Acts of Thomas, likely written in the early 3rd century, perhaps in Edessa. The text describes Thomas' efforts in bringing Christianity to Northwest India, specifically in the Indo-Parthian Kingdom.{{cite book |title=Marco Polo; notes and addenda to Sir Henry Yule's edition, containing the results of recent research and discovery |last=Cordier |first=Henri |year=1920 |url=https://archive.org/details/sermarcopolonote00corduoft/page/116/mode/2up?q=edessa&view=theater |quote= St. Ephraem the Syrian (born about A.D. 300, died about 378), who spent most of his life at Edessa, in Mesopotamia, states that the Apostle was martyred in ' India,' and that his relics were taken thence to Edessa. That St. Thomas evangelized the Parthians, is stated by Origen (born A.D. 185 or 186, died about 251-254). Eusebius (bishop of Caesarea Palaestinae from A.D. 315 to about 340) says the same}}

According to traditional accounts such as the "Thomma Parvam" ("Song of Thomas"), he is generally described as arriving in or around Maliankara and founding Seven Churches and half churches, or Ezharapallikal: Kodungallur, Kollam, Niranam, Nilackal (Chayal), Kokkamangalam, Kottakkavu, Palayoor, Thiruvithamcode Arappalli and Aruvithura church (half church). A number of 3rd- and 4th-century Roman writers also mention Thomas' trip to India, including Ambrose of Milan, Gregory of Nazianzus, Jerome, and Ephrem the Syrian, while Eusebius of Caesarea records that Clement of Alexandria's teacher Pantaenus from Alexandria visited a Christian community in India using the Gospel of Matthew in Hebrew language in the 2nd century.{{sfnmp|1a1=Eusebius|1loc=Book V Chapter 10 "Pantaenus the Philosopher"|Frykenberg|2008|2p=103|3a1=Baum|3a2=Winkler|3y=2003|3p=52|4a1=Medlycott|4y=1912|Whitehouse|1873|5pp=12–20}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.indianchristianity.com/html/chap4/chapter4g.htm|title = Indian Christianity}} Byzantine traveller Cosmas Indicopleustes wrote of Syrian Christians he met in Malabar and Sri Lanka in the 6th century.{{cite book|author=Cosmas Indicopleustes|editor=J. W. McCrindle|title=The Christian Topography of Cosmas, an Egyptian Monk: Translated from the Greek, and Edited with Notes and Introduction|date=24 June 2010|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cp9S9o5lj5oC&pg=PA119|access-date=3 November 2012|edition=2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-108-01295-9|pages=48, 119–120, 365–366}}{{sfnp|Walker|2011}}{{sfnp|Frykenberg|2008|pp=105,110}} In 883 the English king Alfred the Great reportedly sent a mission and gifts to Saint Thomas' tomb in India.{{sfnp|Frykenberg|2008|p=112}} During the Crusades, distorted accounts of the Saint Thomas Christians and the Nestorian Church gave rise to the European legend of Prester John.# Silverberg, Robert (1996). The Realm of Prester John, pp. 29–34. Ohio University Press. {{ISBN|1-84212-409-9}}.

{{excerpt|Religious education in Kerala|Christianity}}

{{Pie chart

| caption = Denominations among all Christians in Kerala

| value1 = 40.2

| color1 = #C71585

| label1 = Syro-Malabar

| value2 = 7.6

| color2 = #DA70D6

| label2 = Syro-Malankara

| value3 = 8.0

| color3 = #FF1493

| label3 = Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

| value4 = 7.8

| color4 = 7.9

| label4 = Jacobite Syrian Church

| value5 = 6.6

| color5 = #9400D3

| label5 = Syrian Marthoma

| value6 = 0.43

| color6 = #FF00FF

| label6 = Chaldean Syrian Church

| value7 = 4.5

| color7 = #32CD32

| label7 = CSI

| value8 = 4.3

| color8 = #556B2F

| label8 = Pentecost

| value9 = 2.6

| color9 = #ADFF2F

| label9 = Dalit Christian

| value10 = 13.2

| color10 = #00BFFF

| label10 = Latin Catholic

| value11 = 5.47

| color11 = #FFFF00

| label11 = Others

}}

The 2011 Indian census found a total of 6,411,269 Christians in Kerala, with their various denominations as stated: Saint Thomas Christians (including multiple Catholic, Oriental Orthodox and Protestant bodies) constituted 70.73% of the Christians of Kerala, followed by Latin Catholics at 13.3%, Pentecostals at 4.3%, CSI at 4.5%, Dalit Christians at 2.6% and other Protestant groups (such as Lutheran, Calvinist and other charismatic churches) at 5.9%.

The Saint Thomas Christians (Nasrani) of Kerala primarily belong to churches which use the East Syriac Rite (Syro-Malabar Catholic Church and Chaldean Syrian Church) and West Syriac Rite (Malankara Jacobite Syrian Christian Church, Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, Mar Thoma Syrian Church, St. Thomas Evangelical Church of India, Syro-Malankara Catholic Church and the Malabar Independent Syrian Church). The Church of South India belongs to the Anglican Communion and Saint Thomas Anglicans are theologically and liturgically similar to Anglicans elsewhere. Pentecostal Saint Thomas Christians, like other Pentecostals, are riteless (nonliturgical).{{cite book |last1=John |first1=Stanley J. Valayil C. |title=Transnational Religious Organization and Practice: A Contextual Analysis of Kerala Pentecostal Churches in Kuwait |date=19 February 2018 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-36101-0 |pages=167, 203 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kntTDwAAQBAJ |language=en}} {{As of|2005}}, Saint Thomas Christians composed 12.5% of the total population of Kerala.{{cite book |last1=Anderson |first1=Allan |last2=Tang |first2=Edmond |title=Asian and Pentecostal: The Charismatic Face of Christianity in Asia |year=2005 |publisher=OCMS |isbn=978-1-870345-43-9 |pages=192 to 193, 195 to 196, 203 to 204 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LDZgKELq7AoC&q=pentecostalism+kerala+syrian+christian&pg=PA196 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Bergunder |first1=Michael |title=The South Indian Pentecostal Movement in the Twentieth Century |date=6 June 2008 |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |isbn=978-0-8028-2734-0 |pages=15 to 16, 26 to 30, 37 to 57 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XGiv3riaunQC&q=Pentecostal+evangelical+saint+thomas+syrian+christian |language=en}}

File:St. Marys Cathedral Trivandrum Fassade 2 (retuschiert).jpg The Mar Thoma Syrian Church and St. Thomas Evangelical Church of India are Oriental Protestant churches.{{cite book |last1=Leustean |first1=Lucian N. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zt2vAwAAQBAJ&q=Eastern+Christianity+and+Politics+in+the+Twenty-First+Century+mar+thoma+anglican |title=Eastern Christianity and Politics in the Twenty-First Century |date=30 May 2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-81866-3 |page=568 |language=en |quote=The Syrian Orthodox also became the target of Anglican missionary activity, as a result of which the Mar Thoma Church separated from the Orthodox in 1874, adopting the Anglican confession of faith and a reformed Syrian liturgy conforming to Protestant principles.}}{{cite book |last1=Pallikunnil |first1=Jameson K. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6hSODgAAQBAJ&q=nature+and+identity+of+mar+thoma+church&pg=PT48 |title=The Eucharistic Liturgy: A Liturgical Foundation for Mission in the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church |date=2017 |isbn=978-1-5246-7652-0 |pages=48, 53 |language=en |quote=Metropolitan Juhanon Mar Thoma called it "a Protestant Church in an oriental grab."...As a reformed Oriental Church, it agrees with the reformed doctrines of the Western Churches. Therefore, there is much in common in faith and doctrine between the MTC and the reformed Churches of the West. As the Church now sees it, just as the Anglican Church is a Western Reformed Church, the MTC is an Eastern Reformed Church. At the same time as it continues in the apostolic episcopal tradition and ancient oriental practices, it has much in common with the Oriental Orthodox Churches. Thus, it is regarded as a "bridging Church".}} The Salvation Army also maintains a presence in Kerala.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}

In 2016, 61% of Christians in the state were Catholics, which includes Eastern Catholics and Latin Catholics.{{Cite web |url=http://cds.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/WP468.pdf |title=Religious denominations of Kerala |access-date=2021-05-08 |archive-date=2018-04-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180417114220/http://cds.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/WP468.pdf |url-status=dead }} The percentage of Catholics among Christians is the highest in Thrissur district.

Major Pentecostal denominations in Kerala include the India Pentecostal Church of God, Assemblies of God in India, Church of God (Full Gospel) in India, and The Pentecostal Mission.

• Caste system among South Asian Christians
• Goan Catholics
• East Indian Catholics
• Mangalorean Catholics

{{reflist}}

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• {{cite book |author=Eusebius |title=Church History |url=http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250105.htm |translator-first=Arthur Cushman |translator-last=McGiffert |editor-first=Kevin |editor-last=Knight}}. Book V Chapter 10.
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• George K.M.,`Christianity in India Through the Centuries`, Authentic Books, Secunderabad, 2007, 2009.({{ISBN|978-81-7362-786-6}}).
• Benedict Vadakkekara,`Origin of Christianity in India`, Media House, Delhi, 2007.{{ISBN|81-7495-258-6}}.
• Agur C.M.,`Church History of Travancore`, Madras,1903 Reprint:Asian Educational Services, New Delhi,1990. ({{ISBN|81-206-0594-2}}).
• Visvanathan Susan,`The Christians of Kerala`, Oxford University Press, Delhi1993, 1999.({{ISBN|0195647998}})
• George Menachery,`The St. Thomas Christian Encyclopaedia of India`, SARAS, Ed.Prof. George Menachery, Ollur, Vol.I 1982, Vol.II 1973, Vol. III 2009.
• George Menachery,`Indian Church History Classics`, SARAS, Ed.Prof. George Menachery, Ollur, Vol.I The Nazranies 1998.
• C. I. Issac, The Evolution of Christian Church in India, {{ISBN|978 81 7255 056 1}} 2014, Soorygatha Publishers, PB No 3517, Kochi 682 035

{{Christianity in India by region}}

{{Churches in India}}