Nestorian and Syro-Malabar

This entry considers the relations between Nestorians and the Christians of Syro-Malabar.

The Christians on the Malabar coast always courteously received any Christian bishops who came to them from over the seas and even made use of these to ordain or consecrate, but it does not follow that they always accepted the doctrines taught by these bishops.

Also, historians have been too ready to regard any Asiatic bishop as a Nestorian but the bishops who came to this coast may have been Catholics. There always was a tendency among the Nestorian bishops to make overtures to Rome and on three or four occasions there was an actual reconciliation with Rome. When the Portuguese came they were very ignorant of Oriental Churches and did not understand the position of the Syrians, but Francis Xavier praised Jacob as a Catholic and the next two bishops, Mar Joseph and Mar Abraham were in open communion with the Holy See, so that before the diocesan Synod of Diamper the Syrian Church at Malabar was in union with Rome.

When Pope Julius III on April 6, 1553 confirmed John Sulacca as Chaldean Patriarch, the Pope said that the discipline and liturgy of the Chaldeans had already been approved by his predecessors, Nicholas I (858-867), Leo X (1513–1521) and Clement VII (1523–1534). This Papal letter also mentions the former Patriarch, Simon Mamma, of good memory, as Patriarch of the Christians in Malabar. This shows that there were from time to time Chaldean Patriarchs in communion with Rome and it is contended that the Thomas-Christians of Malabar were in communion with these Chaldean Patriarchs and not with the Nestorian Patriarch.

When the Portuguese arrived there they inaccurately called the four bishops Nestorians but these bishops were Chaldean. Their report of 1504 was addressed to the Chaldean Patriarch. The Portuguese were startled by the absence of images and by the use of leavened bread, but these two points are in accordance with Chaldean usage. The Thomas-Christians paid the expenses of Marignoli because he was Papal Delegate.^[1]

St. Francis Xavier in a letter from Cochin to St. Ignatius Loyola, dated 14 January 1549, asks for Indulgences for certain churches, saying, "This would be to increase the piety of the natives who are descended from the converts of St. Thomas and are called Christians of St. Thomas." In another letter dated 28 January 1549 to Rodriguez, St. Francis Xavier asks for indulgences for a church at Cranganore, "which is very piously frequented by the Christians of St. Thomas, to be a consolation for these Christians and to increase piety."

As saints are notoriously keen in detecting heresy and as indulgences cannot be granted to schismatics, it is contended that these letters of St. Francis Xavier show that the Thomas-Christians were in communion with Rome, even before the arrival of Mar Joseph in 1555. When the Portuguese deported Mar Joseph to Portugal it was not the Nestorian Patriarch but the Chaldean Patriarch who sent Mar Abraham to take his place. This appears from Action iii, Decree X of the third provincial council at Goa in 1585, which recites that Mar Abraham came as Archbishop of Angamale, with a letter from Pope Pius IV. The letter of Pope Gregory XIII which was written on November 29, 1578 to Mar Abraham ask him not to convert his flock, but to convert non-Christians only. ^[2]

Notes

1. ^ Father Nidhiry: A History of His Times by Prof. Abraham Nidhiry
2. ^ Life and Letters of St. Francis Xavier, by H.J. Coleridge, S.J., ii. 74 90.

External links

• Syro Malabar Church