[10][11] The Saint Thomas Christians had been historically a part of the hierarchy of the Church of the East but are now divided into several different Eastern Catholic, Oriental Orthodox, Protestant, and independent bodies, each with their own liturgies and traditions.

Historically, this community was organised as the Province of India of the Church of the East, by Patriarch Timothy I (780–823 AD) in the eighth century, it was served by bishops and a local dynastic archdeacon.

The early converts of Saint Thomas the Apostle and those who later joined the faith in India are believed to have initially resided on the northern side of the city of Kodungallur and for that reason became known as Vadakkumbhagar or Northist.

[69][70] According to legend, the community began with Thomas's conversion of 32 Brahmin families, namely Pakalomattom, Sankarapuri, Kalli, Kaliyankal, Koikara, Madapoor, Muttodal, Kottakara, Nedumpilly, Palackal, Panakkamattom, Kunnappilly, Vazhappilly, Payyappilly, Maliakkal, Pattamukku, Thaiyil, etc.

May God grant him strength and help that he may govern us with zeal and direct us according to the will of his Lord, and that he may teach us His commandments and make us walk in His ways, till the end of time, through the intercession of the holy Apostle St. Thomas and all his colleagues !

At the time the community was in a tenuous position: though thriving in the spice trade and protected by their own militia, the local political sphere was volatile and the Saint Thomas Christians found themselves under pressure from the rajas of Calicut and Cochin and other small kingdoms in the area.

[119] Facilitating their goals was the Padroado Real, a series of treaties and decrees in which the Pope conferred upon the Portuguese government certain authority in ecclesiastical matters in the foreign territories they conquered.

[121] By 1599 the last Metropolitan, Abraham, had died, and the Archbishop of Goa, Aleixo de Menezes, had secured the submission of the young Archdeacon Givargis, the highest remaining representative of the native church hierarchy.

The Synod brought the parishes directly under the Archbishop's purview; anathematised certain "superstitious" social customs characteristic of their Hindu neighbors, including untouchability and a caste hierarchy; and purged the liturgy, the East Syriac Rite, of elements deemed unacceptable according to the Latin protocol.

[126] The Synod formally brought the Saint Thomas Christians into the Catholic Church but the actions of the Portuguese over the ensuing years fueled resentment in segments of the community, and ultimately led to open resistance to their power.

[129] In 1652, the escalating situation was further complicated by the appearance in Mylapore of a mysterious figure named Ahatallah, who claimed to have been sent by the Pope, from the Church of Antioch to serve as "Patriarch of the Whole of India and of China".

In a great ceremony before a crucifix and lighted candles, they swore a solemn oath that they would never obey Padroado Archbishop Francisco Garcia or the Portuguese again, and that they accepted only the Archdeacon as their shepherd.

The Syro Malabar Church deny this argument and regard the Coonan Cross Oath as an explosion against decades long suppression and overbearing attitude of Padroado Latin prelates.

Later, in 1657, Pope Alexander VII sent the Italian priest Joseph Sebastiani as the head of a Carmelite mission of the Propaganda Fide to regain the trust of the dissident St. Thomas Christians.

[30] Bishop Gabriel temporarily succeeded in reviving the traditionalist community, but was faced with prolonged rivalry, both from West Syriac (Jacobite) and Latin Catholic (Propaganda Fide and Padroado) leadership.

[164] However, the Carmelite missionaries working among the Paḻayakūṟ 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.

[156][162] Following this, in 1787, representatives from eighty-four Paḻayakūṟ 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.

[173] The trading class, as well as the office bearers, also suffered the setback and many Europeans who visited the states between 1801 and 1820 noted the poor and depressed condition of Saint Thomas Christians of the Puthenkur.

[174] In 1815, the British Resident, Colonel John Munro, founded a seminary in Kottayam, for the theological education of Jacobite Christian priests and invited the Anglican missionaries to teach there.

[175] As a protest against the interference of the Anglican Church in the affairs of the Puthenkur faction of the Saint Thomas Christians, the Metropolitan, Cheppad Dionysios, convened a Synod at Mavelikara on 16 January 1836.

[182] In 1860, tired of their Latin subjugation, the Paḻayakūṟ sent a delegation headed by Antony Thondanatt (d. c. 1900) to Mosul to make a plea to the Chaldean Catholic patriarch to consecrate a bishop of their own rite for them.

[30] In response, Patriarch Joseph VI Audo consecrated Thomas Rokos,[30] titular archbishop of Basra,[183] and dispatched him to visit the alienated Malabar Christian flock in 1861.

[189] After his death, local Christians appealed to Shimun XIX, Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East in Qochanis who was forthcoming, and in December 1907 consecrated Abimalek Timotheus as metropolitan bishop for India.

Hence the group with Mathews Athanasius was known as "Reform Party"[35][193] The conservative faction, under the leadership of Metropolitan Pulikkottil Joseph Dionysious II, opposed the attempts to do away with the age-old traditions of the church, which resulted in a stir in the community.

[215] Jatiaikya Sangham, an organization formed with an objective of reuniting the Paḻayakūṟ and Puthenkur communities, came up with the idea of a newspaper that resulted in the establishment of Nasrani Deepika by Nidhirikkal Manikkathanar in 1887.

Their demands were partially met in 1922 when the Revenue Department was separated from the Devaswom, a semi-government organization that managed the Hindu temples, thus removing the restriction on non-Hindus and avarnas in the executive service.

[217] There followed a period of fierce confrontation between the Diwan and Saint Thomas Christians—many leaders were arrested, prominent news papers were banned and large banks owned by the community members were liquidated.

[citation needed] Though the government initiated the legislation process for reforming the land and the education sectors, these were considered as infringements over the rights by the school managements and landowners, who were predominantly Saint Thomas Christians and Nairs.

[276] As of 2001[update], in Kerala, more than 85 per cent of the Saint Thomas Christian population live in the seven southern districts of the state – Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Idukki, Ernakulam and Trissur.

Internal division of Saint Thomas Christians into Northists and Southists and also into a number of sects based on the ecclesiastical orientation makes the pattern of segmentation an exceedingly complex.