Home›Rituals›Tradition›Saint Thomas ChristiansDenominationSaint Thomas ChristiansChristianityPractitioner SystemVerifiedOrigin 52 to 600 CEAn ancient Christian community of India's Malabar Coast, also called Nasrani, tracing its origin to the Apostle Thomas, said to have landed there in 52 CE. Long connected to the East Syriac Church of the East hierarchy, the community fractured under Portuguese colonial pressure, most decisively at the 1653 Coonan Cross Oath, into the several distinct Catholic, Orthodox and Reformed churches that carry its inheritance today.FactsLearn MoreSaint Thomas ChristiansConnectionsSourcesComments (0)Reader Challenges (0)FactsOrganisationGovernanceWell-attestedEpiscopal: governed by bishops 1Polity DetailWell-attestedNo single polity today: the inheritance is divided among Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara Catholic, Malankara Orthodox, Jacobite Syrian and Mar Thoma Syrian churches 1OrdinationWell-attestedMarried clergy permitted 1Relation to the StateWell-attestedNo Establishment 2India's constitution was amended in 1976 to declare the Republic explicitly secular, and Articles 25 through 28 guarantee every religious community, including the Saint Thomas Christians who trace their presence in Kerala to the first century, the same freedom to profess, practise and administer their own religious affairs with no community established as the state's own.PracticeLiturgical LanguageWell-attestedClassical Syriac 1TrajectoryMembership Over TimeWell-attestedSourced to the subject's own accountBy the early 2000s, the community's combined Catholic and Orthodox branches were estimated at roughly six to seven million worldwide, a scale nearly thirty times the seventeenth century figure. 4Membership Over TimeWell-attestedSourced to the subject's own accountPortuguese-era clergy reports from 1629 put about 250,000 Syrian Christians in Malabar, one of the earliest reasonably documented estimates of the community's size. 4Membership Figure As OfWell-attestedSourced to the subject's own account1629-01-01 4Membership Figure As OfWell-attestedSourced to the subject's own account2003-01-01 4Basis of the Membership FigureWell-attestedSourced to the subject's own accountScholarly or Demographic Estimate 4OriginsOrigin PeriodWell-attested52 to 600 CE 1Place of OriginWell-attestedMuziris and the Malabar Coast, present day Kerala 1FounderWell-attestedTraditionally the Apostle Thomas; externally attested as an organized community by the fourth to sixth centuries 1HistorySeparation or DivergenceWell-attestedThe 1653 Coonan Cross Oath, in which much of the community swore never again to submit to Portuguese Jesuit authority 1Date of SeparationWell-attested1599 to 1653 1StatusStatus TodayWell-attestedLiving tradition, practised today 3A living inheritance carried today by several distinct churches all tracing the same first century originLearn MoreThe Apostle Thomas Tradition Saint Thomas Christians, also called Nasrani, are an ancient Christian community of India's Malabar Coast, in present day Kerala, who trace their origin to the Apostle Thomas, said by tradition to have landed at the port of Muziris in 52 CE, founded seven churches among the region's population, and been martyred near Chennai on India's east coast. The tradition's basic plausibility rests on well documented first century trade routes between Roman Egypt and southern India, sustained by sailors' knowledge of the seasonal monsoon winds, which made a voyage of the kind the tradition describes entirely feasible for the period even though no contemporary written record of Thomas's own journey survives. External evidence for an Indian Christian community appears clearly by the fourth and sixth centuries. Writers connected to the Alexandrian Christian tradition mention Christians in India in the fourth century, and the sixth century merchant turned monk Cosmas Indicopleustes describes, in his own eyewitness account, a Christian community on the Malabar coast under a bishop consecrated in Persia, confirming that by his time the community was long established and already connected to the East Syriac, or Church of the East, hierarchy centered in Mesopotamia, a relationship that shaped its liturgy, language and governance for the following thousand years.The Coonan Cross Oath and a Fractured Inheritance For roughly a millennium the Saint Thomas Christians were governed by bishops sent from the East Syriac Church of the East, worshipped in Syriac, and operated with substantial local autonomy under a hereditary archdeacon who handled everyday communal leadership. Portuguese colonization of the Malabar coast from 1498 brought this arrangement into direct conflict with Latin Catholic missionaries, who regarded the community's East Syriac connections and married clergy with suspicion. The 1599 Synod of Diamper, convened under Portuguese and Jesuit pressure, attempted to bring the community fully under Latin Catholic norms, revising its liturgy and severing its ties to the Church of the East. Resentment at this imposition culminated in 1653 in the Coonan Cross Oath, when a large part of the community gathered at a leaning stone cross in Kerala and swore never again to submit to Portuguese Jesuit authority, a decisive break that set the community's later fragmentation in motion. Over the following centuries, further splits produced the several distinct churches that carry the Saint Thomas Christian inheritance today: Catholic communities in union with Rome under Eastern rites, the Malankara Orthodox and Jacobite Syrian churches connected to Oriental Orthodoxy, and the Reformed-influenced Mar Thoma Syrian Church, all still claiming descent from the same first century foundation despite centuries of division.Saint Thomas ChristiansFilter Results5 entriesOrigin Period Start YearAll30 (1)150 (1)200 (1)FrequencyAllDaily (2)Once, or at a turning point in a life (3)Life Stage MarkedAllEntry into the community or the order (2)Marriage (1)Naming of a child (1)ObligationAllObligatory (4)Scholarly StandingAllA standard analytic category in the study of religion (5)Social FormAllPerformed by a gathered group (1)Performed by an officiant for a recipient (2)Practice StatusAllLiving tradition, practised today (5)PractitionerAllClergy or ordained officiants (4)Officiant Led (1)Native To RegionAllAncient Rome (1)Judea (1)Mesopotamia (1)Originated InAllAncient Rome (1)Judea (1)Mesopotamia (1)Originates In LanguageAllClassical Syriac (2)Koine Greek (1)Kind of ritualAllBirth and Naming Rites (1)Christian Initiation and Ordination Rites (1)Marriage Rites (1)Oriental and Syriac Christian Rites (2)Show ResultsBrowseCompareSelect all 5BaptismSaint Thomas ChristiansEast Syriac RiteSaint Thomas ChristiansInfant Baptism and ChristeningSaint Thomas ChristiansMarriage CeremonySaint Thomas ChristiansWest Syriac RiteSaint Thomas ChristiansConnectionsAssociated WithIndian Ocean, Bodies of Water Well-attested The Saint Thomas Christians of Kerala hold that the apostle crossed this ocean and landed on the Malabar coast in 52.Source The Indian OceanMichael Pearsontier 1Kerala, Regions Well-attested The Saint Thomas Christians are the ancient Christian community of the Kerala coast.Population Statistics and Demography of Saint Thomas Christians (nasrani.net), Sources Well-attested This source names Saint Thomas Christians directly: "compiled population history of the Saint Thomas Christians of India's Malabar Coast, published 2007-02-13 and read 2026-08-16, drawing on named historical clergy reports and later census-era..."Source Population Statistics and Demography of Saint Thomas Christians (nasrani.net)nasrani.net editorstier 3The Indian Christians of St. Thomas: An Account of the Ancient Syrian Church of Malabar, Sources Well-attested This source names Saint Thomas Christians directly: "Leslie Brown's The Indian Christians of St."Source The Indian Christians of St. Thomas: An Account of the Ancient Syrian Church of MalabarLeslie Browntier 1The Synod of Diamper, Councils and Synods Well-attested This source names Saint Thomas Christians directly: "Aleixo de Menezes of Goa to bring the Saint Thomas Christians of the Malabar Coast of India, a community tracing its origins to the apostle Thomas and maintaining for centuries an East Syriac..."Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)tier 1Belongs to TraditionChristianity, Religions Well-attested Branch OfChristianity, Religions Well-attested Governed By PolityEpiscopal Polity, Doctrines Well-attested Holds ElementCatholicos, Religious Roles & Titles Well-attested The Malankara church of the Saint Thomas Christians is headed by a catholicos.Source The Church of the East: An Illustrated History of Assyrian ChristianityChristoph Baumertier 1Syriac Chant, Sacred Sound Well-attested The Saint Thomas Christians of Kerala are the eastern extension of this tradition, and both the Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara churches carry a Syriac chant repertory.Source The Luminous Eye: The Spiritual World Vision of Saint Ephrem the SyrianSebastian P. Brocktier 1The Council of Chalcedon, Councils and Synods Well-attested ConnectedThe Saint Thomas Christians of Kerala are divided by the question. Their successor churches sit on both sides of Chalcedon, some in communion with Rome, some with the Oriental Orthodox, so the community as a whole holds no single position on it.Source The Church of the East: An Illustrated History of Assyrian ChristianityChristoph Baumertier 1Objects and Practices of This TraditionActs of Thomas, Scriptures & Texts Well-attested The source of the India mission narrative that anchors the Saint Thomas Christians' own foundation tradition, matching the treatment Peshitta already carries toward this same denomination.Source The Acts of ThomasAnonymoustier 2Apostolic succession, Doctrines Well-attested Every branch of the Saint Thomas Christian community keeps episcopal succession, received historically through the East Syriac Church of the East, and claims apostolic origin from Thomas; the claim of succession is not inherited from any parent body in the atlas.Source The Indian Christians of St. Thomas: An Account of the Ancient Syrian Church of MalabarLeslie Browntier 1Baptism, Rituals Well-attested Baptism is followed at once by chrismation.East Syriac Rite, Rituals Well-attested The Syro-Malabar and Chaldean Syrian churches of this community use the East Syriac rite.Fasting, Practices Well-attested The Syriac fasting calendar is kept, with the Great Fast and the Fast of the Nativity.Infant Baptism and Christening, Rituals Well-attested Infants receive the full rite of initiation.Marriage Ceremony, Rituals Well-attested The marriage rite is a crowning, with the tying of the thali, a local usage found in no other Christian marriage rite.Peshitta, Scriptures & Texts Well-attested Pilgrimage, Practices Well-attested Pilgrimage to the shrines associated with the apostle Thomas is the devotional centre of this community.Prayer, Practices Well-attested Prayer follows the Syriac books, in the East Syriac form among the Syro-Malabar and Chaldean Syrian communities and the West Syriac among the Malankara.The Thomas Tradition of Indian Christianity, Doctrines Scholarly debate Why this is disputed. The community holds that the Apostle Thomas landed at Muziris in 52 CE, founded seven churches on the Malabar Coast and was martyred near Mylapore. Whether the apostle reached south India cannot be established from any source independent of the tradition.Source The Indian Christians of St. Thomas: An Account of the Ancient Syrian Church of MalabarLeslie Browntier 1West Syriac Rite, Rituals Well-attested The Malankara churches of this community use the West Syriac rite, which they adopted after the seventeenth century. One ancient community, two liturgical families, and a reader looking for a single Saint Thomas rite will not find one.Originated InKerala, Regions Well-attested Source Saint Thomas Christians (Wikipedia)Related ToAssyrian Church of the East, Denominations Well-attested The Malabar community received its hierarchy, East Syriac liturgy and canon law from the Church of the East for more than a thousand years, a link the Portuguese severed at Diamper in 1599; the Chaldean Syrian Church of Thrissur remains within that communion today.Source The Indian Christians of St. Thomas: An Account of the Ancient Syrian Church of MalabarLeslie Browntier 1Uses Liturgical LanguageClassical Syriac, Languages Well-attested Sources1. The Indian Christians of St. Thomas: An Account of the Ancient Syrian Church of Malabartier 1Leslie Brown, Cambridge University Press, 19562. International Religious Freedom Reporttier 1United States Department of State, Office of International Religious Freedom, US Department of State, 2023View the Source3. Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)tier 2Encyclopaedia Britannica editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2024View the Source4. Population Statistics and Demography of Saint Thomas Christians (nasrani.net)tier 3nasrani.net editors, nasrani.net, 2007View the SourceThe Church of the East: An Illustrated History of Assyrian Christianitytier 1Christoph Baumer, I. B. Tauris, London, 2006The Luminous Eye: The Spiritual World Vision of Saint Ephrem the Syriantier 1Sebastian P. Brock, Cistercian Publications, 1992Saint Thomas Christians (Wikipedia)Originated In: Kerala, LeadQuote, Originated In: Kerala, LeadThe Saint Thomas Christians, also called Syrian Christians of India, Marthoma Suriyani Nasrani, Malankara Nasrani, or Nasrani Mappila, are an ethno-religious community of Indian Christians in the state of Kerala (Malabar region), who, for the most part, employ the Eastern and Western liturgical rites of Syriac Christianity.View the SourceComments (0)No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.Sign in to join the discussion.Reader Challenges (0)No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.View At A Past YearChoose a year to see this entry's facts and connections as the atlas records them at that moment: what it held then, what it held instead, and what it had not yet adopted. Choose Present for the current record.YearPresent52Show This Year