Syro-Malabar Catholic Church
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around 3.8 million |
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| Vernacular: Malayalam, English Liturgical: Syriac, Malayalam, English |
The Syro-Malabar Catholic Church is a Chaldean tradition or East Syrian Rite, Major Archiepiscopal Church in Full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. It is one of the 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in the Catholic Church.
Cardinal Mar Varkey Vithayathil is the current head (Major Archbishop) of this church. Saint Alphonsa is the first saint.
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[edit] History
[edit] East Syrian Relationship
From early centuries the Church of Saint Thomas Christians came into life-relation with the Christian communities that came to be known as Assyrian Church of the East. Primate or Metropolitan of Persia sent one bishop at a time to St. Thomas Christians, who had his residence in the See of Kodungallur.[2]
Assyrian Church of the East/Chaldean Church traces its origins to the See of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, said to be founded by St. Thomas the Apostle. Other founding figures of Seleucia-Ctesiphon are Saint Mari and Saint Addai as evidenced in the Doctrine of Addai and the Holy Qurbana of Addai and Mari.Church of Persia traces its origin to the missionary activities of St. Thomas the Apostle. The St Thomas Christians in Kerala accepted the Syriac Litury of St Addai and St Mari which was brought to them by the Assyrian church of the East. Thus they shared the liturgical, spiritual and other ecclesiastical traditions with the Assyrian Church of the East/Chaldean Church. Therefore they are grouped under Chaldean Rite.[3] At the same time the Christians of St. Thomas continued to follow the Hindu social customs of their origin over which the bishop who came from Mesopotamia had little say. The Chaldean Church gave a special recognition to St. Thomas Christians for being in direct apostolic lineage of St. Thomas the Apostle himself, not his disciples.
[edit] Arrival of Portuguese in Malabar
The first European to set foot on Kerala soil was Vasco da Gama in 1498. Roman Catholic missionaries followed and set up a base in Cochin. Goa became a Portuguese colony in 1510.
[edit] Restoration of the Syro Malabar Hierarchy
After being under Chaldean bishops earlier and under Latin Rite Roman Catholic bishops from 1599, Apostle Thomas Christians got their own bishops from 1887. They came to be known as the Syro Malabar Catholics from that point on, to differentiate them from the Latin Rite Roman Catholics in Kerala.
[edit] Time line of events
[edit] Faith and communion of Syro Malabarians
The St. Thomas Christians got their bishops from the Assyrian Church of the East/Chaldean Church till the end of the sixteenth century, until it was stopped by the Portuguese Roman Catholics in 1597, after the death of Mar Abraham.
Communication between Thomas Christians and Rome did not exist because the first European to come to Kerala was Vasco da Gama in 1498. Absence of direct communications or relations does not mean they were in schism with Rome.
About the attitude of the Thomas Christians, Fr. Dionisio S.J. writes: “About the Pope, they consider him as the Vicar of Christ, our Redeemer, on earth; (they consider) the Patriarch as subject to the Pope from whom he receives his power.” In fact it was by threatening them with excommunicatio latae sententiae that Dom Menezes, the Portuguese Latin prelate of Goa made the St. Thomas Christians sign the synod of Diamper. Schism cannot be charged till the communion has been broken (in mala or bona fide).
[edit] Syro Malabar identity
In their isolation, the Church of St Thomas Christians developed surprisingly few originalities of dogma.
No historical records exist about the early church of Apostle Thomas Christians. All that is known with certainty is that they followed the Syriac Rite of Addai and Mari and they got a bishop from the Assyrian Church of the East/Chaldean Church.
Fr.Placid Podipara says in an emblematic writing of his, “They are Hindu or Indian in culture, Christian in religion and Syro-Oriental in worship.
The head of the Church of St. Thomas Christians, sent by the Assyrian Church of the East/Chaldean church assumed the title “The Metropolitan of All India”.
[edit] Liturgy
In the second half of 20th century, there was a movement for better understanding of the liturgical rites. A restored Eucharistic liturgy, drawing on the original East Syrian sources, was approved by Pope Pius XII in 1957 and for the first time on the feast of St. Thomas on July 3, 1962, the vernacular, Malayalam, was introduced for the celebration of the Syro-Malabar rite Mass.[4]
Currently they celebrate the Divine Liturgy of Addai and Mari in Malayalam, Syriac or English.
The Latinization of the Syro-Malabar rite churches was brought to a head when in 1896 Ladislaus Zaleski, the Apostolic Delegate to India, requested permission to translate the Roman Pontifical into Syriac. This was the choice of the Malabar prelates, who chose it over the East Syrian Rite and West Syrian Rite pontificals. Various problems and concerns delayed the approval of this translation, until in 1934 Pope Pius XI decisively stated that Latinization was no longer to be encouraged among Eastern Rite Catholics.[5] He thus initiated a process of liturgical reform that sought to restore the oriental nature of the heavily Latinized Syro-Malabar rite. [6] A restored Eucharistic liturgy, drawing on the original East Syrian sources, was approved by Pius XII in 1957 and introduced in 1962.Despite a reaffirmation of the main lines of the 1962 rite by the Oriental Congregation in 1985, however, there has been some resistance to this reform.
[edit] Liturgical calendar
Syro Malabar Church has its own seasons around the year. They are fixed according to the flow of salvation history. Concentrating themselves on Jesus of Nazareth, i.e., on the historical life of Jesus, the believers are led to the eschatological fulfilment, viz., the heavenly bliss, in this special arrangement of liturgical seasons.[7]
[edit] Eparchies
Template:Eparchies of The Syro-Malabar Catholic Church
There are about four million Syro-Malabar Catholics worldwide distributed in 26 dioceses. About three million Syro Malabar Catholics live in the state of Kerala in South India in 13 dioceses, five of which have the status of archdioceses. The remaining one million Syro Malabar Catholics are spread out in 12 dioceses within India outside Kerala, and there is only one diocese outside India, in Chicago, US. All the Syro Malabar Catholic dioceses outside Kerala are directly under the Pope.
[edit] Metropolitan Archeparchies
The believers of this church are organized under 5 Archdioceses. All five are in Kerala.
- Metropolitan Archeparchy of Ernakulam-Angamaly
- Metropolitan Archeparchy Changanassery
- Metropolitan Archeparchy of Kottayam
- Metropolitan Archeparchy of Tellicherry
- Syro-Malabar Catholic Archdiocese of Thrissur http://www.trichurarchdiocese.org
[edit] Eparchies
- Eparchy of Adilabad
- Eparchy of Belthangady
- Eparchy of Bhadravathi
- Eparchy of Bijnor
- Eparchy of Chanda
- Eparchy of Chicago
- Eparchy of Gorakhpur
- Eparchy of Idukki
- Eparchy of Irinjalakuda
- Eparchy of Jagadalpur
- Eparchy of Kalyan
- Eparchy of Kothamangalam
- Eparchy of Kanjirappally
- Eparchy of Mananthavady
- Eparchy of Palghat
- Eparchy of Palai
- Eparchy of Rajkot
- Eparchy of Sagar
- Eparchy of Satna
- Eparchy of Thuckalay
- Eparchy of Thamarassery
- Eparchy of Ujjain
[edit] List of Prominent Syro-Malabar Catholics in History
[edit] See also
- Saint Thomas Christians
- Knanaya Christians
- Syro-Malankara Catholic Church
- Saint Alphonsa
- Blessed Chavara
- Carmelites of Mary Immaculate
- Congregation of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux
- Christianity in India
- Syrian Malabar Nasrani
- Goa Inquisition
- Thomas (Apostle)
- Rock crosses of Kerala
[edit] References
- ^ Syro-Malabar Church from official website
- ^ The Hierarchy of the Syro-Malabar Church - Placid J.Podipara
- ^ The Hierarchy of the Syro-Malabar Church - Placid J.Podipara
- ^ The Origin and Progress of the Syro-Malabar Hierarchy By Varkey J. Vithayathil
- ^ The Synod of Diamper and the Liturgy Jacob Vellian The Synod of Diamper Revisited, George Nedugatt, ed.
- ^ A Study of the Syro-Malabar Liturgy (George Vavanikunnel)
- ^ Pathikulangara, Varghese. Mar Thomma Margam, (A New Catechism for the St. Thomas Christians of India), Kottayam: Denha Services, 2004
[edit] External material
[edit] References and bibliography
- Chevalier Professor George Menacherry
- ASSEMANI, Bibliotheca Orientalis (Rome, 1719-28); DE SOUZA.
- Orientale Conquistado (2 vols., Indian reprint, Examiner Press, Bombay).
- Gouvea, Jornada do Arcebispo Aleixo de Menezes quando foy as Serra do Malaubar (Coimbra, 1606).
- Fr. tr. DE GLEN, Histoire Orientale etc. (Brussels, 1609); DU JARRIC.
- Thesaurus rerum mirabilium in India Orient (3 vols., Cologne, 1615).
- PAULINUS A SANTO BARTHOLOMAEO.
- India Orientalis Christiana (Rome, 1794).
- MACKENZIE, Christanity in Tranvancore, with Census Report of 1901 (Trevandrum).
- MEDLYCOTT, India and the Apostle St. Thomas (London, 1905).
- Menachery G (1973) The St. Thomas Christian Encyclopedia of India, Ed. George Menachery, B.N.K. Press, vol. 2, ISBN 81-87132-06-X, Lib. Cong. Cat. Card. No. 73-905568; B.N.K. Press – (has some 70 lengthy articles by different experts on the origins, development, history, culture... of these Christians, with some 300 odd photographs).
- Mundadan, A. Mathias. (1984) History of Christianity in India, vol.1, Bangalore, India: Church History Association of India.
- Podipara, Placid J. (1970) "The Thomas Christians". London: Darton, Longman and Tidd, 1970. (is a readable and exhaustive study of the St. Thomas Christians.)
- Philip, E.M. (1908) The Indian Christians of St. Thomas (1908; Changanassery: Mor Adai Study Center, 2002).
- Aprem, Mar. (1977) The Chaldaean Syrian Church in India. Trichur, Kerala, India: Mar Narsai, 1977.
- Menachery, Professor George. (2000) Kodungallur - The Cradle of Christianity In India, Thrissur: Marthoma Pontifical Shrine.
- Acts of St. Thomas (Syriac) MA. Bevan, London, 1897
- Tisserant, E. (1957) Eastern Christianity in India: A History of the Syro-Malabar Church from the Earliest Times to the Present Day. Trans. and ed. by E. R. Hambye. Westminster, MD: Newman Press.
- Michael Geddes, (1694) A Short History of the Church of Malabar together with the Synod of Diamper, London.
- Puthur, B. (ed.) (2002): The Life and Nature of the St Thomas Christian Church in the Pre-Diamper Period (Cochi, Kerala).
- T.K Velu Pillai, (1940) "The Travancore State Manual"; 4 volumes; Trivandrum)
- Menachery G (ed); (1998) "The Indian Church History Classics", Vol. I, The Nazranies, Ollur, 1998. [ISBN 81-87133-05-8].
- Palackal, Joseph J. Syriac Chant Traditions in South India. Ph.d, Ethnomusicology, City University of New York, 2005.
- Joseph, T. K. The Malabar Christians and Their Ancient Documents. Trivandrum, India, 1929.
- Leslie Brown, (1956) The Indian Christians of St. Thomas. An Account of the Ancient Syrian Church of Malabar, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1956, 1982 (repr.)
- Thomas P. J; (1932) "Roman Trade Centres in Malabar", Kerala Society Papers, II.
- Marco Polo.(1298) LATHAM, R. (TRANSL.) "The Travels" Penguin Classics 1958
- Bjorn Landstrom (1964) "The Quest for India", Double day English Edition, Stockholm.
[edit] External Links
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- Syro-Malabar Church
- Archdiocese of Thrissur
- // Archdiocese of Kottayam
- Archdiocese of Changanacherry
- Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly
- Archdiocese of Tellicherry
- The website for Synod of Diamper
- Welcome to Indian Christianity
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