Saint Thomas Christians
St. Thomas Christians are found in the southern Indian state of Kerala. These Christians of Malabar trace their roots back to St. Thomas the Apostle who arrived along the Malabar Coast in the year AD 52. In their tradition, St. Thomas is referred to as Mar Thoma Sleeha which translate roughly as Lord/Saint Thomas the Apostle.
St Thomas Christians had a unique identity till the arrival of Portuguese in India, who converted St. Thomas Christians in their area of control to the Catholic Church. As a result of this foreign intervention into their culture there are several present day St. Thomas churches, primarily in the Catholic and Oriental Orthodox traditions.
Among the St. Thomas Christians, now the largest church in terms of membership is the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, a major archepiscopal church in communion with the Bishop of Rome with a membership approaching four million adherents.
Read more about this topic: History Of Eastern Christianity
Famous quotes containing the words saint, thomas and/or christians:
“A designer who is not also a couturier, who hasn’t learned the most refined mysteries of physically creating his models, is like a sculptor who gives his drawings to another man, an artisan, to accomplish. For him the truncated process of creating will always be an interrupted act of love, and his style will bear the shame of it, the impoverishment.”
—Yves Saint Laurent (b. 1936)
“The masses of the sea
The masses of the sea under
The masses of the infant-bearing sea
Erupt, fountain, and enter to utter for ever
Glory glory glory
The sundering ultimate kingdom of genesis’ thunder.”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)
“There were honest people long before there were Christians and there are, God be praised, still honest people where there are no Christians. It could therefore easily be possible that people are Christians because true Christianity corresponds to what they would have been even if Christianity did not exist.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)