[14] The earliest known source connecting the Apostle to India is the Acts of Thomas, likely written in the early 3rd century, perhaps in Edessa.

[25] The Thomma Parvam further narrates St Thomas's mission in the rest of South India and his martyrdom at Mylapore in present-day Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

[27] Byzantine traveller Cosmas Indicopleustes wrote of Syrian Christians he met in India and Sri Lanka in the 6th century.

Patriarch Ishoyahb III (650-660) criticises Shemʿon, metropolitan of Rev Ardashir: "As far as your province is concerned, from the time you showed recalcitrance against ecclesiastical canons, the episcopal succession has been interrupted in India, and this country has since sat in darkness, far from the light of divine teaching by means of rightful bishops: not only India that extends from the borders of the Persian empire, to the country which is called Kaleh, which is a distance of one thousand and two hundred parasangs, but even your own Persia.

Following the Synod of Diamper held in 1599 and organised by Aleixo de Menezes, the Primate of East Indies and Archbishop of Goa, many traditions and numerous Syriac books of the native Saint Thomas Christians were condemned.

The text of the new liturgy largely consisted of translations from the Latin and intended to re-place the original East Syriac (Chaldean) rite of the local Christians.

However, the majority among the Pazhayakoor also resisted the latinisation and a long struggle began for maintaining the Chaldaean rite and the contact with both the patriarchates of the Church of the East while identifying themselves Catholic in communion with the Holy See of Rome.

But after Chandy's death, the missionaries appointed a half-Indian Portuguese, Raphael Figueredo (c. d. 1695) as the Vicar Apostolic of Malabar for Saint Thomas Christians.

[33] Soon, Bishop Raphael Figueredo also lost the favour of the Carmelites and he was replaced with Custodius de Pinho (c. d. 1697) as the Vicar Apostolic of Malabar.

Fearing about these plans and reluctant to share authority, the Padroado declined the request to consecrate the newly appointed bishop-elect.

[39][35] Although all these happened in utmost secrecy, a letter that he sent from the Capuchin monastery of Surat to the Saint Thomas Christians, was preserved and his memory was cherished by them.

Shemʿon's dead body was found in a well near where he was detained in Pondicherry and thus the Saint Thomas Christians believed that he was murdered by the missionaries.

[40] An excerpt from the letter of Metropolitan Shemʿon addressed to the Saint Thomas Christians in MS Mannanam Mal 14, 46r-45v folios: After praying that you be in spiritual peace and enquiring about your condition I let it know to your graceful love that I came from Mar Eliah, Patriarch of the East; let his glorious see be fortified!

[41][45] Unlike Metropolitan Shem˓on, Gabriel neither explicitly claim to be Chaldean Catholic bishop nor was he interested in a friendship with the Latin missionaries.

[51] Thoma IV was by this time a supporter of Miaphysitism, brought by the Syriac Orthodox prelates, and he regarded Gabriel as a Nestorian heretic.

His letter to Jacobus Canter Visscher, a Dutch chaplain at Kochi,[50] gives an apologetic detail of the history of Christianity in India and expresses staunch opposition to the Portuguese missionaries.

Following is an excerpt from the letter, entitled "The antiquity of the Syrian Christians, and Historical events relating to them", addressed to Visscher: And in the days of this persecution, the upright, God-fearing, justice-loving, and peaceable Dutch were sent to Malabar by the inspiration of Almighty God and by order of the East India Company, under the command of the noble Lord Admiral Ryklop van Goens, and like as the heathen were driven out of the land of Isso Biranon Kinan [Canaan] so have they driven the worse than heathen Portuguese out of Cochin and other cities and fortresses of Malabar; and through Divine Providence the Syrian christians have been from that time forward protected and defended from them, and their pastors have again visited this country without let or hindrance.

[50]Following the arrival of West Syriac prelates in 1751, Thoma VI, the leader of the Puthenkūr was troubled by their increasing influence among his faction.

[53] Therefore, in order to reunite his faction with the Paḻayakūṟ and thus to prevent the West Syriac prelates, he initiated efforts to submit to the Pope and profess the Catholic creed.

[54] However, the Carmelite missionaries working among the Pazhayakūr were reluctant to reciprocate to his efforts fearing that the indigenous bishop would take away their authority and influence over the faction after the proposed reunification of the Saint Thomas Christians was fulfilled.

[3] Baselios Shakrallah Qasabgi, the head of the Syriac Orthodox delegation, consecrated Kurian Kattumangat as Bishop Abraham Koorilose in 1764.

[56] Thoma VI received support from Pazhayakūr leaders, who informed him of the ill-treatment and discrimination that they faced from the missionaries.

This general meeting at Angamaly was dominated by strong emotions against the colonial religious missionaries and the Padroado and Propaganda bishops working then in Kerala.

The European Carmelite missionaries forgot to lock the church after dinner and on the next day the gold monstrance was found to be missing.

[3] But, the Portuguese Queen, who was impressed with Kariyattil Iousep for his sincere effort and knowledge, decided to bestow the title of Archbishop of Cranganore upon him using her Padroado rights.

[3] Following this in 1787, representatives from the eighty-four Pazhayakūr churches assembled at Angamaly and drew up the Angamāly Padiyōla against the colonial Latin hegemony, declaring their allegiance to the Paremmakkal Thoma and urged for the reinstatement of their native East Syriac hierarchy.

[61] An excerpt from the letter of Patriarch Yohannan VII Hormizd addressed to the faithful in Malabar gives a detail of the attempts for restoration of the East Syriac hierarchy.

He will let you know about our condition; he will let you know everything about our activity now that we are asking our Lord and are soliciting the abundant ocean of His mercy that He may bless you with all heavenly blessing and take away and make depart from you the sufferings and the affliction and that He may liberate you from the temptations and the rebellion and the evil scandals, by the prayer of the Apostles and the Fathers, so that during your lifetime you may remain healthy and be preserved in the sign of the living Cross of the Lord.

[62] Thachil Matthoo Tharakan was troubled by Veluthampy Dalava's rising influence in the royal court of Travancore.

[63] Although the King later repented for the indiscriminate actions of the Dalava,[63] the church union movement had already lost its powerful economic backing.