Nestorian and Syro-Malabar

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 Mar 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.