MAR THOMA CHURCH

MAR THOMA CHURCH. This ancient church of India (q.v.) was founded according to local tradition by the Apostle Thomas, hence the name. Whether one accepts its apostolic origins or not, it is a certainty that this Christian community in southern India is of ancient provenance. Its liturgical language was, and largely remains, Syriac. Its earliest connections were with the Assyrian (Nestorian) Church (qq.v.) of the Persian Empire. Portuguese colonization in the 16th c. enforced Latinization and led to the Synod of Diamper (1599) and the complete suppression of the local tradition, including the burning of the ancient books on suspicion of heresy (q.v.). Three generations later (1665) a popular revolt against Portuguese dominance led to a substantial minority’s reconnection with Syria, though this time with the “monophysite” Church of Antioch (qq.v.). Further schisms in the 19th c. and 20th c. saw the reestablishment of a small Nestorian community of Indian Christians, renewed as lately as 1952. The number of Indian Orthodox, as the local non-Chalcedonian church is called, is estimated at one and a half million.