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{{About|the general history of the St. Thoma Christian Indian Orthodox Churches|historical Indian Orthodox church|Malankara Church|what is commonly known as the Indian Orthodox Church|Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church {{Oriental Orthodox sidebar {{Indian Christianity {{Nasrani people The Indian Orthodox Church is the oldest of all the Christian communities in India historically known as the St. Thomas Christians and commonly as the Syrian Christians of India or the Malankara Nasranis or just Nasranis. Generally known as the Malankara Church, it saw various divisions. The main present-day churches that are considered Indian Orthodox are the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, being the mains Indian Orthodox church and the smaller Jacobite Syrian Christian Church (also being known as Syriac Orthodox Church of India) and the Malabar Independent Syrian Church (also known as the Thozhiyur Church).

History

The origins of the Indian Orthodox Church begin with Apostle Thomas, one of Jesus Christ's 12 apostles. St. Thomas established many churches in the eastetn part of the Roman Empire. It is believed that he came to South Asia in AD 52 with the mission of establishing a Christian church in India. The Indian church was in its start a part of the Church of Persia and more generally of the Church of the East.

With the split of the Oriental Orthodox churches from the Eastern Orthodox churches after the 4th Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD, the Indian church adhered to the non-Calcedonian churches of the East and part of the Oriental Orthodox churches. The Indian church remained an autonomous diocese of the autocephalous Church of the East headquartered in Selucia-Ctesiphon ever since the establishment of the Catholicate in the 4th century and its primate the Catholicos of the East. The see of the catholicos was later moved to Tigris and Mosul following persecutions. This continued until the 16th century, except for a few instances of interference by the parallel Nestorian Catholicos in Orthodox jurisdictions.

Divisions

[[File:SaintThomasChristian'sDivisionsHistoryFinal.png|thumb|left|450px|Saint Thomas Christians - Divisions- History in a nutshell With the increasing influence of the Portuguese, the Portuguese Padroado with its Catholic tradition, imposed, despite public opposition to it by the traditionalist St. Thomas Christians, the convening of the Synod of Diamper in 1599 that passed Catholic traditions on a church that had been united until the 16th century under the Church of the East, converting a great number of the Malabar St. Thomas Christians on the Malabar Coast on the western coast of India from Orthodoxy into Catholicism under what became to be known as Syro-Malabar Catholic Church under the umbrella of what is known now as the group of Eastern Catholic Churches.

In the ensuing Coonan Cross Oath of 1653, the Orthodox Church was further divided between the Catholics and the traditionalist Malankara Church. Part of the now divided church adhered to the Pazhayakoor Catholic Church adopting the East Syriac Catholic tradition, whereas the Putenkoor Malankara Church adhered to an Independent East Syrian Orthodox tradition. In 1665, a faction restarted a relation with the West Syrian Church in the East and beginning with 1772 has continued as the Malabar Independent Syrian Church. A splinter group from the Pazhayakoor Catholic Church returned to allegiance with the Assyrian Church of the East from 1814 onwards. The remaining part of the Church continues as the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church.

The reforms of 1889 further divided the Indian church with the reformists forming the Mar Thoma Syrian Church. In 1961, the St. Thomas Evangelical Church splintered from the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church forming an independent church if its own.

In 1912, the autonomous Indian diocese of the Orthodox Church of the East was elevated to an autocephalous church itself with the reinstatement of the Catholicate of the East in India. This was not recognised by the then-reigning Patriarch of Antioch Ignatius Abded Aloho II Sattuf, head of the Syriac Orthodox Church. In 1930, a small faction of the church separated from Orthodoxy forming the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church and was no more part of the Orthodox tradition. Final approval of Syro-Malankara Catholic Church as a maphrianate came in 1958 with the Patriarch of Antioch of the Syriac Orthodox Church Ignatius Jacob III.

The situation, however, deteriorated in 1975 and the Malankara church split again from the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church. Since that time there have been two rival maphrianates in India, with heads of both churches using the title of catholicos. The main Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church which continues to be known as the Indian Orthodox Church is headed by the Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan. The other much smaller Malankara Jacobite Syrian Christian Church, associated more directly with the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch is headed by the Catholicos of India.

The various churches under the title of Indian Orthodox Church now comprises around 2.5 million adherents within India itself.

{{Churches in India {{Christianity in Kerala {{History of Christianity {{Asia topic|Oriental Orthodoxy in {{Syriac Christianity {{Oriental Orthodoxy footer

[[Category:Oriental Orthodoxy in India [[Category:Saint Thomas Christians