Palakunnathu Abraham Malpan, (30 May 1796 – 9 September 1845) was an Indian cleric and theologian known for the Reformation movement within the Malankara Church during the 19th century.

He was born in the ancient Syrian Christian Palakunnathu family which practiced West Syriac Rite Oriental Orthodoxy after the Coonan Cross Oath of 1653.

Abraham Malpan translated and revised the West Syriac liturgy, restoring the Church to what he considered to be its position before the Synod of Diamper in 1599.

After being ordained as a priest in 1815 by Mar Thoma VIII, he soon became a professor of Syriac, a Malpan, at the Malankara Old Seminary in Kottayam.

But during the time just before the reformation small children of 7 years were ordained as deacons by the bishops after taking big bribes from the parents.

Abraham obtained good fluency in Syriac and the Bible and acquired a sound knowledge of Christian theology.

His uncle, Thomma Malpan was of opinion that many of the beliefs that infiltrated into Malankara Church were against the teaching of the Bible.

While he was the guardian of Abraham Malpan in his younger days, they talked about restoring the Church to its previous position before the Synod of Diamper.

Teaching at the Kottayam Seminary, gave him enough time to read and study the Bible in his mother tongue, Malayalam.

Mar Thoma did not like this interference of the Anglican Missionaries in the Church affairs, and convened a meeting of Church representatives at Mavelikkara on 16 January 1836, in which the Synod declared that, "We, the Jacobite Syrians are under the rule of the Patriarch of Antioch ..."[9] On 6 September 1836, strategies were formed by a group of 12 senior clergy under the leadership of Abraham Malpan, to initiate reformation.

[citation needed] Every year in the first week of October, there was a church festival at Maramon, connected with saintly Maphriyono-Catholicos Mor Baselious Yeldho.

In 1837, 22 years after taking over as vicar of the parish, Abraham Malpan took the image and threw it into a well saying, "Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?"

But when Abraham Malpan used the revised liturgy and brought about changes in practices, that disappointed and offended Marthoma XII who threatened him with excommunication.

Members of parishes in Kozhencherry, Ayroor, Kumbanad, Koorthamala, Eraviperoor, Thumpamon, Elanthoor, Kundara, Kottarakara, Mavelikara, Mallapally, and many other places made trips to Maramon to attend the service in Malayalam and listen to his sermons.

Repent and go back to the old beliefs; join the Anglican Church with western theology and aid; or go forward with the reformation.

After completing his collegiate studies and by the spiritual guidance and necessity of Abraham Malpan, Mathews made travel arrangements to go to Antioch for Bishopship, with the help of his teachers in Chennai.

The funeral service was conducted by his nephew Mathews Mar Athanasius Metropolitan, of the Malankara Syrian Church.

Abraham Malpan is generally viewed as either a conservative radical reformer or a harried schismatic in the annals of Indian Christianity.

Due to his untimely death and lack of writings, it is difficult to ascertain what exactly Malpan envisioned, but what is known is that he was a zealous, passionate and stern man.

But what is virtually agreed upon was his unquenchable desire to reform it timely and be biblically sound to what can be counted, and the event as an inspiration in dormancy and as a guide for readiness to change, in the present day.