Oath
On January 3, 1653 Archeadeacon Thomas and representatives from the community met at the Church in Mattancherry to swear what would be known as the Coonan Cross Oath. The following oath was read aloud and the people touching a stone-cross repeated it loudly:
- By the Father, Son and Holy Ghost that henceforth we would not adhere to the Franks, nor accept the faith of the Pope of Rome
The incident of Mar Ahatalla presented an occasion for the St. Thomas Christians to retaliate. When they came to know that Mar Ahatalla was drowned carried off, they could not tolerate the imperious Portuguese and their arbitrary actions; they assembled in thousands around a big granite cross, the Coonen Kurish (Leaning Cross) in the Mattanchery parish church grounds near Cochin on January 16, 1653 and took an oath to submit no longer to the ecclesiastical authority of Rome and to obey none save their Archdeacon Thomas until they get a bishop from the Eastern Church.
The number of people who took part in the Sathyam (Oath) being large, all could not touch the granite Cross at the same time. Therefore, they held on to ropes tied to the Cross in all directions. According to tradition,out of a population of 200,000 St. Thomas Christians, only 400 remained loyal to the Roman Arch bishop Garcia.
The event in 1653 broke the fifty four year old yoke of Roman supremacy imposed at the Udayamperur Synod of 1599.
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