The ancient Apostolic Christianity
of India- the Nasranis are divided into several denominations today. They were
a united community under the Patriarch of the East using East Syriac liturgy.
Now, they are divided into several denominations with different liturgies. There are groups in Universal Catholic communion besides a few autocephalous churches and
sections remaining as part of the Syrian Church of Antioch and the Assyrian Church of the East. Broadly they use two
different families of liturgies- the East Syrian Liturgy and the West Syrian
liturgy. So, we can classify them as East Syrian Churches and West Syrian
Churches of Malabar.
The Coonan Cross oath and the
aftermath of it, caused the first division of Nasranis the group led by the Archdacon Parampil Thomas and the group led by Cathanar Parampil Chandy. The group led by Parampil Chandy was called Pazhayacoor (the old loyalists) and the group led by Archdeacon Thomas was called Puthencoor (the new loyalists). The
religio political situation existed then, forced the Puthencoor to get
affiliated to the Syrian Church of Antioch and to adopt the West Syrian liturgy
gradually. Thus, the Puthencoor community became West Syriac Church of Malabar
and the Pazhayacoor remained the East Syriac Church of Malabar.
There has been some recent
discontent about the validity of these terminologies.Some argue that it was the
Archdeacon's party that is the official group and hence, they should be called
Pazhaycoor or old loyalists. The other opinion is that it was the Archdeacon's
party who were revolted against the existing system and hence they are the
newly formed party-Puthencoor.
This terminology was accepted in the
past. Edavalikkel Philippose Kathannar in his book 'The Syrian Christians of
Malabar: otherwise called the Christians of Saint Thomas', James Parker and Co,
Oxford and London, 1869 comments about this terminologies. The Niranom Chronicles also use the terminology.
The terminolgy Puthencoor and
Pazhayacoor was about the loyalty towards the authority of Jurisdiction rather
than the rite. Archdeacon's party erected a rival jurisdictional authority
against what prevailed since AD 1554, about 99 years. That was why the term
Puthencoor applied to them. Eminent Indian Orthodox Historian Dr M Kurian
Thomas also comments about this in his book about the Niranam Chronicles and
agrees with this fact.
In AD 1554, Mar Joseph Sulaqa
arrived in Malabar, appointed by Mar Abdisho, the Chaldean Patriarch. Mar
Joseph received pallium from the Pope of Rome. This was the beginning of the
explicit communion of Thomas Christians with the Pope of Rome. Even
before, Mar Jacob, one of the Bishops arrived in AD 1504 was reportedly lenient
towards the Portuguese Missionaries.
The initial relations of Thomas
Christians with the Portuguese Roman Catholics were friendly. The Portuguese
Missionaries were allowed to preach in our churches. They even set up a
seminary in Cranganore to train our clergy. It was only when they tried to wipe
out the Syriac Christianity that our forefathers resisted.
The seminary at Cranganore was a
failure due to theresistance of the Thomas Christians. Then the Portuguese
stepped back and tried different tactics to win the Thomas Christians, like
influencing the Kings and showing their power etc. Synod of Diamper was also a
similar effort. Our leaders accepted it. That was why, both groups used the
latinised East Syrian rite and Latin elements like statues in their churches.
To sum up, in AD 1653, at the time
of Coonan Cross oath,the whole of Thomas Christians were in explicit communion
with the Pope of Rome. The Churches were filled with statues and
murals and using latinised East Syrian liturgy. Among the Thomas Christians at
that time, there would have been no one clergy or laity alive who was borne and
brought up in the community before the beginning of this explicit communion
with the Catholic Church- that is 99 years. So, the whole generation of
clergy and laity were trained in a latinised way and practicing their faith
modified according to the norms of the Roman Catholic Church and remembering
the name of the Pope in the Holy Qurbana.
It has been documented that Mar
Thomas Parambil ( Mar Thoma I ) discouraged Mar Gregorius from celebrating Holy
Qurbana in his own rite, in a fear that it might cause dissatisfaction in the
community and he might lose the flock. It is clearly documented that the
Puthencoor community continued the Latin elements for more than 100 years after
this division. In the Chronicles of Niranam, there are mentions about the
celebration of ash wednesday as in Latin rite by the Puthencoor community.This
itself is a proof that the whole of Thomas Christians were in explicit communion
with the Catholic Church for a long time sufficient enough to even the
Archdeacon's party also to be latinised with widespread use of statues and
murals in their churches as per the norm of the Roman Catholic Church.
It was in this context that during
the Coonan Cross Oath and immediate events after it, the Archdeacon Thomas
claimed the mandate of the Pope of Rome against the Jesuits. This is clearly seen in
the contemporary documents kept in the Jesuit archives. These documents have
been studied by many people. Even the actual oath was also not explicitly
against the Pope but against the Jesuites.( Even though many people claim that
it was against the Pope and Roman Catholic Church, none of the even anti
Catholic authors agreed with it) Arch deacon Thomas has written letters to Rome
requesting to replace Jesuites with Dominicans or Carmelites. That was why Rome
sent Carmelites Joseph Sebastiani and Vincent Hyacinth against the Portuguese
Padruado, to pacify the situation and to win the Thomas Christians back.
What happened after Coonan Cross
Oath was erecting a rival jurisdictional authority by consecrating the
Archdeacon as a Bishop. Contemporary documents even show that for this
consecration also, Archdeacon Thomas claimed the mandate of the Pope of Rome .
The vast majority- total - was with
the Archdeacon. All accepted Mar Thoma I (Archdeacon Thomas) as a Bishop who
was claimed to be consecrated with the mandate of Pope.
Situation changed by the arrival of
Joseph Maria Sebastiani, the Carmelite sent from Rome on the earlier request of
Archdeacon Thomas. Sebastiani convinced the community leaders that this
consecration was not according to the mandate of the Pope and also it was
invalid and Archdeacon Thomas was not a Bishop. The community did not want to
go back to the Jesuite Bishops. So, Rome consecrated Sebastiani as a Bishop for
the Thomas Christians (AD 1659).
Now, for the Thomas Christian
community, Sebastiani was sent by the Pope for them. A good section of Thomas
Christians returned to Catholic fold under Mar Sebastiani.
Due to the change in the colonial
politics, Sebastiani had to leave and he consecrated Mar Parambil Chandy as the
new bishop in AD 1663. Mar Chandy even started using the term Archbishop and the
Gate of India, while Archdeacon Thomas was still an illegitimately consecrated
'pseudo bishop'. Everybody considered that there is going to be a new line of
native Bishops for Thomas Christians from Mar Chandy. The majority joined
Bishop Chandy. It was only in AD 1665 that Mar Thoma I was legitimately
consecrated as a Bishop by Mar Gregoriose.
There are arguments about the
legitimacy of the Archdeaconate of Parambil Thomas and illegitmacy of the
leadership of Parambil Chandy. The issue is not simple and straightforward. We do not know since when the Archdeacon was
hereditary and since when we had Archdeacons in our church. It is true that
Archdeacons were like the local ruler of the Christians. The Archdeacons in the
Church of the East did not have the glory that our Archdeacons had.
But the dignity of Archdeacons of
Malabar was reduced after the Synod of Diamper (AD 1599). At some time, there
were two Archdeacons in our community, attached to two rival Bishops from East
Syrian Church. Thus, the Archdeacon's dignity became like a Vicar General.
There are some people who want to
say that it was the Archdeacon who was the centre of our church and the Bishops
were a mere person to ordain priests. That was not the case. We, the Thomas
Christians were in full conformity with the Church of the East and Episcopal
dignity was a key figure in our ecclesiastical and temporal life. Whenever
there was a period of absence of a Bishop, our community always sent a
delegation to the Patriarch of the East for a Bishop. So, like Christians elsewhere
in the World, we honoured the Episcopal dignity and the Archdeacon was only the
leader of the community.
Parambil Thomas was the legitimate
Archdeaon. In the complex political situation after the Coonan Cross oath, most
of the community viewed Archdeacon Thomas as a person who lead the church to a
mess without an Episcopal hierarchy and communion but a self proclaimed
illegitimate Bishop where as Parambil Chandy fought with Jesuites and helped in
getting an Episcopal dignity other than that of the Jesuites, with the mandate
of the Pope and lead the church into a dignity with rest of the Christendom and
communion with the Pope as we did for 113 years by then. So the majority of the
community accepted ParambilChandy as the leader and he became the Bishop and
all expected that this is the end of foreign rule and there is going to be a
line of native Bishops from him. But sadly to say, that did not happen and the
Pazhayacoor went under the suppressive rule of foreign Bishops. When a Latin
Rite Bishop was consecrated as the successor of Mar Chandy, a few churches of Pazhayacoor even
joined Puthencoor -like Manarcadu, Puthuppally, Piravom etc.
While Portuguese ( Roman Catholic)
missionaries tried to keep the Pazhayacoor with them, the anti Catholic
European Colonialists tried to keep a section away from the Roman Catholic
Church by extending all support and arms. It was they who brought Mar Gregorius
in AD 1665. Later also, they organised to get Bishops from Middle East- when
they were in desperate situation, they brought even Bishops with odd behaviours
creating lot of unrest in the community. We do not even know the real identity
of the so called Kallada Mooppan who arrived in Malabar in AD 1676. The British
used a lot of force and even paid money to get the Puthencoor Cathanaars
married.
So, the whole history of divisions
and disputes among the Thomas Christians of Malabar is a reflection of the
Colonial politics at that time. We were mere puppets in their hands.
In the evolution of the Puthencoor
Community, there were resistance against the adoption of West Syrian Liturgy
and submission of jurisdiction to the Syrian Church of Antioch. This difference
in opinion complicated with the influence of the Protestant Churches caused the
Puthencoor Community to divide into 4 different churches- the Malankara
Orthodox Syrian Church, Indian Orthodox Church, Marthoma Syrian Church and the
Thozhiyoor Independent Syrian Church. There were several divisions, excommunications and reconciliations and even law suits about the Church property for
several years and continues even today. During this conflict, a small section
went into communion with the Catholic Church- The Syro Malankara Catholic
Church.
The Pazhayacoor remained in the then existed Catholic Communion,
initially under native Thomas Christian Bishop Mar Chandy, but later fell under
the suppressive rule by the European Latin Bishops. The community fought
vigourously for independence and self rule and to protect the identity of the
Church. They stood for protecting their East Syrian Liturgy from Latinisations
of the different Roman Catholic Missionaries and authorities. During this
struggle, they tried to get in communion with the Chaldean Catholic Church.
This led to consecrating a native Malabar Thomas Christian Paulose Pandari- Mar
Abraham by the Chaldean Catholic Patriarch and later sending two Chaldean
Catholic Bishops to Malabar- Mar Thomas Rochos and Mar Eliya Meloos. These
efforts led to a split which caused a minor group going into communion with the non
Catholic Church of the East- the Chaldean Church of Trichur.
It is a misnomer that the Church of the East in India is called
Chaldeans. The East Syrians in communion with the Roman Catholic Church are
called the Chaldeans but the Chaldeans of Trichur are part of the non Catholic Church
of the East. The Thomas Christians of Malabar had a strong feeling of the Syro Chaldean
identity since AD 1554. Their rite was called Syro Chaldean. The Pazhayacoor group wanted to get communion with the
Chaldean Catholic Church of Babylon but due to the inability of Chaldean
Catholic Patriarch to help, the Chaldeans of Trichur turned towards their religio political
rival group in Mesopotamia, the non Catholic Church of the East, the present
day Assyrian Church of the East. Being pro Chaldean in thier outlook they retained the name Chaldean, even though they are part of the Church of the East.
The vast majority of Pazhayacoor
continued their struggle and eventually they succeeded in attaining a sui iruis
status with a Major Arch Bishop as the Father and Head of the particular with a synod of Bishops. The
saddening fact is that when the Pazhayacoor Catholic Syrian Christians were
under the suppressive rule of the Latin prelates, their Cathanaars and faithful
were fighting for retaining their syro chaldean identity and self rule. But,
once the native Thomas Christians became in charge, they tried to imitate the
latin church and diluted the Syro Chaldean identity. They considered the Syro
Malabar Church as an offshoot of Latin Church and tried to get united with the
Latin Church of India to have a single rite of Catholics in India.( Willaim
Macomber, 1977).
Out of of this ignorance, a generation of Syro Malabar
Catholics were formed who do not understand the Syrian traditions. Even
scholars started talking about creating an Indian Anaphora and Indian Liturgy.
By the Grace of God, Rome discouraged all those attempts and the Roman Pontiffs
even sent letters of strong words to the Syro Malabar Hierarchy to preserve
their Syro Chaldean rite. Sadly, this was viewed and accused by some corners as
Chaldeanisation, forgetting the fact that the whole history of the Pazhayacoor
Catholic Syrian Christians from AD 1599 till AD 1896 when native Thomas Christians were appointed as Prelates, can be summarised as a united fight and
sufferings to preserve the Syro Chaldean identity. Thus, we can see that a section in the
real Pazhayacoor today is trying to evolve into a brand new Churh, invalidating the term Pazhayacoor.
