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According to Indian Christian traditions, the apostle Thomas arrived in Kodungallur (also Muziris), Kerala established the Seven Churches and evangelized in present day Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
As with early Christianity in the Roman Empire, it is assumed that the initial converts were largely Jewish proselytes among the Cochin Jews who are believed to have arrived in India around 562BC, after the destruction of the First Temple. Many of these Jews presumably spoke Aramaic like St. Thomas, also a Jew by birth, who is credited by tradition with evangelizing India.
A historically more likely claim by Eusebius of Caesarea is that Pantaenus, the head of the Christian exegetical school in Alexandria, Egypt went to India during the reign of the Emperor Commodus and found Christians already living in India using a version of the Gospel of Matthew with "Hebrew letters." This is a plausible reference to the earliest Indian churches which are known to have used the Syriac New Testament. Pantaenus' evidence thus indicates that Syriac-speaking Christians had already evangelized parts of India by the late 2nd century.
San Thome Basilica in Chennai is built over the site where St.Thomas is believed to be originally interred
An early 3rd-century Syriac work known as the Acts of Thomas connects the tradition of the apostle Thomas' Indian ministry with two kings, one in the north and the other in the south. The year of his arrival is widely disputed due to lack of credible records. According to one of the legends in the Acts, Thomas was at first reluctant to accept this mission but the Lord overruled the stubborn disciple by ordering circumstances so compelling that he was forced to accompany an Indian merchant, Abbanes, to his native place in northwest India, where he found himself in the service of the Indo-Parthian king, Gondophares. The apostle's ministry reputedly resulted in many conversions throughout this northern kingdom, including the king and his brother. The Acts of Thomas identifies his second mission in India with a kingdom ruled by King Mahadwa, one of the rulers of a 1st-century dynasty in southern India. According to the tradition of the Mar Thoma or “Church of Thomas,” Thomas evangelized along the Malabar Coast of Kerala State in southwest India, though the various churches he founded were located mainly on the Periyar River and its tributaries and along the coast, where there were Jewish colonies. He reputedly preached to all classes of people and had about seventeen thousand converts, including members of the four principal castes. According to legend, St. Thomas attained martyrdom at St. Thomas Mount in Chennai and is buried on the site of San Thome Cathedral.
Detail of a stained glass window at the Anglican St. Thomas Cathedral, Mumbai showing Thomas the Apostle in the centre flanked by St. Gabriel and St. Michael on either side. St. Thomas occupies a position of immense significance in Indian Christianity irrespective of denominational differences
Critical historians treated the Acts of Thomas as an idle tale and denied the historicity of King Gundaphorus until modern archeology established him as an important figure in North India in the latter half of the 1st century. Many coins of his reign have turned up in Afghanistan, the Punjab, and the Indus Valley. Remains of some of his buildings , influenced by Greek architecture, indicate that he was a great builder.
Although little is known of the immediate growth of the church, Bar-Daisan (AD 154-223) reports that in his time there were Christian tribes in North India which claimed to have been converted by Thomas and to have books and relics to prove it. Certainly by the time of the establishment of the Second Persian Empire (AD 226), there were bishops of the Church of the East in northwest India, Afghanistan and Baluchistan, with laymen and clergy alike engaging in missionary activity.
Despite lively trade between the Near East and India via Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf, the most direct route to India in the 1st century was via Alexandria and the Red Sea taking advantage of the Monsoon winds, which could carry ships directly to and from the Malabar coast. The discovery of large hoards of Roman coins of 1st-century Caesars and the remains of Roman trading posts testify to the frequency of that trade. Historian Vincent A. Smith wrote, “It must be admitted that a personal visit of the Apostle Thomas to South India was easily feasible in the traditional belief that he came by way of Socotra, where an ancient Christian settlement undoubtedly existed. I am now satisfied that the Christian church of South India is extremely ancient... ”.
According to Indian Christian traditions, the apostle Thomas arrived in Kodungallur (also Muziris), Kerala established the Seven Churches and evangelized in present day Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
As with early Christianity in the Roman Empire, it is assumed that the initial converts were largely Jewish proselytes among the Cochin Jews who are believed to have arrived in India around 562BC, after the destruction of the First Temple. Many of these Jews presumably spoke Aramaic like St. Thomas, also a Jew by birth, who is credited by tradition with evangelizing India.
A historically more likely claim by Eusebius of Caesarea is that Pantaenus, the head of the Christian exegetical school in Alexandria, Egypt went to India during the reign of the Emperor Commodus and found Christians already living in India using a version of the Gospel of Matthew with "Hebrew letters." This is a plausible reference to the earliest Indian churches which are known to have used the Syriac New Testament. Pantaenus' evidence thus indicates that Syriac-speaking Christians had already evangelized parts of India by the late 2nd century.
San Thome Basilica in Chennai is built over the site where St.Thomas is believed to be originally interred
An early 3rd-century Syriac work known as the Acts of Thomas connects the tradition of the apostle Thomas' Indian ministry with two kings, one in the north and the other in the south. The year of his arrival is widely disputed due to lack of credible records. According to one of the legends in the Acts, Thomas was at first reluctant to accept this mission but the Lord overruled the stubborn disciple by ordering circumstances so compelling that he was forced to accompany an Indian merchant, Abbanes, to his native place in northwest India, where he found himself in the service of the Indo-Parthian king, Gondophares. The apostle's ministry reputedly resulted in many conversions throughout this northern kingdom, including the king and his brother. The Acts of Thomas identifies his second mission in India with a kingdom ruled by King Mahadwa, one of the rulers of a 1st-century dynasty in southern India. According to the tradition of the Mar Thoma or “Church of Thomas,” Thomas evangelized along the Malabar Coast of Kerala State in southwest India, though the various churches he founded were located mainly on the Periyar River and its tributaries and along the coast, where there were Jewish colonies. He reputedly preached to all classes of people and had about seventeen thousand converts, including members of the four principal castes. According to legend, St. Thomas attained martyrdom at St. Thomas Mount in Chennai and is buried on the site of San Thome Cathedral.
Detail of a stained glass window at the Anglican St. Thomas Cathedral, Mumbai showing Thomas the Apostle in the centre flanked by St. Gabriel and St. Michael on either side. St. Thomas occupies a position of immense significance in Indian Christianity irrespective of denominational differences
Critical historians treated the Acts of Thomas as an idle tale and denied the historicity of King Gundaphorus until modern archeology established him as an important figure in North India in the latter half of the 1st century. Many coins of his reign have turned up in Afghanistan, the Punjab, and the Indus Valley. Remains of some of his buildings , influenced by Greek architecture, indicate that he was a great builder.
Although little is known of the immediate growth of the church, Bar-Daisan (AD 154-223) reports that in his time there were Christian tribes in North India which claimed to have been converted by Thomas and to have books and relics to prove it. Certainly by the time of the establishment of the Second Persian Empire (AD 226), there were bishops of the Church of the East in northwest India, Afghanistan and Baluchistan, with laymen and clergy alike engaging in missionary activity.
Despite lively trade between the Near East and India via Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf, the most direct route to India in the 1st century was via Alexandria and the Red Sea taking advantage of the Monsoon winds, which could carry ships directly to and from the Malabar coast. The discovery of large hoards of Roman coins of 1st-century Caesars and the remains of Roman trading posts testify to the frequency of that trade. Historian Vincent A. Smith wrote, “It must be admitted that a personal visit of the Apostle Thomas to South India was easily feasible in the traditional belief that he came by way of Socotra, where an ancient Christian settlement undoubtedly existed. I am now satisfied that the Christian church of South India is extremely ancient... ”.
Medieval Period
The Syrian Malabar Nasrani community was further strengthened by various Persian immigrant settlers, the Christian-Jewish Knanaya colonies of 3rd century, Manichaeanism followers, Babylonian Christians settlers of 4th century AD, the Syrian settlements of Mar Sabor Easo and Proth in 7th century AD and the immigrant Persian Christians from successive centuries. Archaeological excavations at Pattanam show that the ancient port town of Muziris was in modern Kerala. The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea describes it as a port of “leading importance”. The Kerala Syrian Church was in communion with the Assyrian Church of the East till the Portuguese arrival in the late 15th century. Bishops came from Syria.
The South Indian epic of Manimekalai (written between 2nd and 3rd century CE) mentions the Nasrani people by referring to them by the name Essanis. The embassy of Alfred in 833 CE described the Syrian Christians as being prosperous and enjoying high status in the Malabar coast. Marco Polo also mentioned the Nasranis and their ancient Church in the Malabar coast in his writings Il Milione. The Saint Thomas Christians still use the Syriac language, (a dialect of Aramaic, also the language which Jesus spoke) in services. This group, which existed in Kerala relatively peacefully for more than a millennium, faced considerable persecution from Portuguese evangelists in the 16th century. This later wave of evangelism spread Catholicism more widely along the Konkan coast.
The French Dominican missionary Jordanus Catalani was the first European to proselytise in India. He arrived in Surat in 1320. After his ministry in Gujarat he reached Quilon in 1323. He not only revived Christianity but also brought thousands to the Christian fold. He brought a message of good will from the Pope to the local rulers. As the first bishop in India , he was also entrusted with the spiritual nourishment of the Christian community in Calicut , Mangalore, Thane and Broach (north of Thane).
Modern Period
Portuguese missionaries reached the Malabar Coast in the late 15th century.They made contact with the St Thomas Christians in Kerala (who were following Eastern Christian practices at that time) and sought to introduce the Catholicism among them. Throughout this period, foreign missionaries also made many new converts to Christianity. Early Roman Catholic missionaries, particularly the Portuguese, led by the Jesuit St Francis Xavier (1506-52), expanded from their bases on the west coast making many converts. With the Papal bull Romanus Pontifex the patronage for the propagation of the Christian faith in Asia was given to the Portuguese. The Portuguese colonial government in Goa supported the mission in India with incentives for baptized Christians. They offered rice donations for the poor, good positions in the Portuguese colonies for the middle class and military support for local rulers. As a result of these incentives many converted Indians were opportunistic Rice Christians, who practiced their old religion alongside Christianity. This was seen as a threat to the immaculateness of the Christian belief. St. Francis Xavier, in a 1545 letter to John III of Portugal, requested an Inquisition be installed in Goa. However the Inquisition, considered one of the most violent institutions in the History of Goa targeted Hindus, Jews, and many newly converted Christians, was only installed eight years after St.Francis Xavier's death. Modern-day Goa has a substantial Roman Catholic population with around 30% of the population professing the faith. The undecayed body of St. Francis Xavier is still on public view in a glass coffin at the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Goa. Mangalore is another significant region on the west coast which has a huge Christian population. In 1321, the French Dominican friar Jordanus Catalani of Severac (in south-western France), who also worked in Quilon arrived in Bhatkal, a place near Mangalore and established a missionary station there. Many locals were converted to Christianity by Jordanus. The Portuguese were however unable to establish their presence in Mangalore as a result of the conquests of the Vijayanagara ruler Krishnadevaraya and Abbakka Rani of Ullal, the Bednore Queen of Mangalore. Most of Mangalorean Catholics were not originally from Mangalore but are descendants of Goan Catholics who fled Goa during the Portuguese-Maratha Wars and the Goan Inquisition. The origin of Christianity in North Konkan, was due to the proselytizing activities of the Portuguese in the 16th century. The French Dominican friar Jordanus Catalani of Severac (in south-western France) started evangelizing activities in Thana. On the occasion of The Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria, the Christians of North Konkan, who were known as Portuguese Christians discarded that name and adopted the designation East Indians.
William Carey translated the Bible into Bengali, Sanskrit, and numerous other languages and dialects
Established in 1818 by the Serampore Trio, the Sentate of Serampore is the not only the first modern university in India but also the premiere Protestant Theological university in India
The first Protestant missionaries to set foot in India were two Lutherans from Germany, Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Pluetschau, who began work in 1705 in the Danish settlement of Tranquebar. They translated the Bible into the local Tamil language, and afterwards into Hindustani. They made little progress at first, but gradually the mission spread to Madras, Cuddalore and Tanjore. Today bishop of Tranquebar is the official title of a bishop in the Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church (TELC) in South India which was founded in 1919 as a result of the German Lutheran Leipzig Mission and Church of Sweden Mission. The seat of the Bishop, the Cathedral and its Church House ("Tranquebar House") is in Tiruchirappalli. Beginning in the 18th century, Protestant missionaries began working throughout India, leading to the growth of different Christian communities. In 1793, William Carey, an English Baptist Minister came to India as a Missionary. He worked in Serampore, Calcutta, and other places as a missionary. He started the Serampore College. He translated the Bible into Bengali. He worked until his death in 1834. The London Missionary Society was the first Protestant mission in Andhra Pradesh which established its station at Visakhapatnam in 1805.[47]Anthony Norris Groves, a Plymouth Brethren missionary came to India in 1833. He worked in the Godavari delta area until his death in 1852. John Christian Frederick Heyer was the first Lutheran missionary in the region of Andhra Pradesh. He founded the Guntur Mission in 1842. He studied Sanskrit and medicine in Baltimore, and set sail for India from Boston in 1841 with three other missionary couples on the ship Brenda. He traveled to India a second time in 1847, spending a decade, mainly in the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh state, in southern India, where he ministered and performed yeoman service to the people there. Supported initially by the Pennsylvania Ministerium, and later by the Foreign Mission Board of the General Synod, Heyer was also encouraged and assisted by British government officials. He established a number of hospitals and a network of schools throughout the Guntur region. Mormon missionaries, including Hugh Findlay, arrived in Bombay and Pune in the early 1850s, but did not meet with success.
During the 19th century, several American Baptist missionaries evangelized in the northeastern parts of India. In 1876, Dr. E. W. Clark first went to live in a Naga village, four years after his Assamese helper, Godhula, baptized the first Naga converts. Rev. and Mrs. A.F. Merrill arrived in India in 1928 and worked in the southeast section of the Garo Hills. Rev. and Mrs. M.J. Chance spent most of the years between 1950-1956 at Golaghat working with the Naga and Garo tribes. Even today the heaviest concentrations of Christians in India continue to be in the Northeast.
Some Images.
San Thome Basilica in Chennai is built over the site where St.Thomas is believed to be originally interred
Detail of a stained glass window at the Anglican St. Thomas Cathedral, Mumbai showing Thomas the Apostle in the centre flanked by St. Gabriel and St. Michael on either side. St. Thomas occupies a position of immense significance in Indian Christianity irrespective of denominational differences
The renovated Mar Thoma Church, Kodungaloor; the first Christian church in India, built 52 A.D.
St. Francis CSI Church, in Kochi, originally built in 1503, is the oldest European church in India
The Nasrani Menorah of the St. Thomas Christians
Altar of the St. Mary's Church in Kottayam; also can be seen are two Persian crosses from 7th century on either side; The church was originally built in 1550
The Basilica of Bom Jesus completed in 1605 is considered one of the best examples of Baroque architecture in India
Se Cathedral is one of the oldest and most celebrated religious buildings in Goa and is one of the largest churches in Asia.
All Saints Cathedral, Allahabad built in 1887 is one of the finest examples of Gothic Revival architecture in India.
The tower of St. Paul's Cathedral, Kolkata was rebuilt along the lines of the Bell Harry Tower of Canterbury Cathedral following the 1934 Calcutta earthquake
St. Philomena's church in Mysore
An Indian Catholic girl receives her first communion
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