The Syro-Malankara Catholic Church (also known as Malankara Syrian Catholic Church, Malankara Syriac Catholic Church; Malayalam: മലങ്കര സുറിയാനി കത്തോലിക്കാ സഭ) is an Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with the Holy See (of Rome). It has a total membership of around 500,000.
The Church is one of the Saint Thomas Christian churches centered in Kerala, India, which trace their origin to the evangelism of Saint Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century. It is one of two Saint Thomas Christian churches in the Catholic communion, the other being the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church. Among the Eastern Catholic Churches, the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church is a Major Archiepiscopal Church, headed by Major Archbishop Baselios Cleemis (Thottunkal), who was elected in 2007. In Malankara tradition, the head of church is addressed as Moran Mor Baselios Cleemis Catholica Bava.
The Malankara Catholic church regained its Catholicity in on September 20, 1930, having lost it in the Coonan Cross Oath of 1653. The division happened from Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, an Oriental Orthodox church, and subsequently entered into communion with Rome. The Malankara Church itself had emerged out of the split within the Saint Thomas Christian community of the 16th century; previously the entire community had comprised a province of the Church of the East, which used East Syrian Liturgy, based in Persia Proper also known as Selucia - Ctesiphon Church . However, the collapse of that Church and influence from the Portuguese, who tried to bring it under the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church, led to a rift in the community. Eventually, the majority entered into communion with Rome as the Eastern Catholic Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, while the rest formed the Malankara Church and aligned with the Syrian Orthodox Church.
This latter group became gradually closer to the Syrian Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, leading to a series of splits concerning the extent to which the Patriarch would be given authority; the faction giving the Patriarch full administrative powers became the Malankara Jacobite Syrian Church. Taking only five members of his Church with him, Mar Ivanios founded the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, on September 30, 1930.
Read more about Syro-Malankara Catholic Church: Official Name of The Church, History, Modern Times, Eparchies, Statistics, Hierarchs, Liturgy and Worship, The Syro-Malankara Catholic Church in North India, Religious Orders, Seminaries, Colleges, Malankara Catholic Youth Movement, Malankara Catholic Association
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