The Syro-Malabar Synod of Bishops canonically convoked and presided over by the major archbishop constitutes the supreme authority of the church.

The Syro-Malabar Church uses a variant of the East Syriac Rite, which dates back to 3rd century Edessa, Upper Mesopotamia.

Through the Synod of Diamper of 1599, the Chaldean jurisdiction was abolished and the Malabar Church was reorganized as the Archdiocese of Cranganore and made subject to the Padroado Latin Catholic Primatal Archbishopric of Goa.

In response, Pope Alexander VII, with the help of Carmelite missionaries, was by 1662 able to reconcile the majority of dissidents with the Latin Catholic Church under Bishop Parambil Chandy, the native Apostolic vicar of Malabar.

[38][39] The Church is predominantly of the Malayali ethnic group who speak Malayalam, although there are a minority of Tamils, Telugus, and North Indians from the various eparchies outside Kerala.

Following emigration of the Church's members, eparchies have been established in other parts of India and in other countries to serve especially the diaspora living in the Western world.

Menezes held the Synod of Diamper in 1599 to bring the Saint Thomas Christians under the complete authority of the Latin Church.

[47] The Thomas Christians including their native priests assembled in the church of Our Lady at Mattancherry near Cochin, formally stood before a crucifix and lighted candles and solemnly swore an oath upon the Gospel that they never again accept another European prelate.

On 22 May 1653, at a general meeting held in Alangad, twelve priests laid hands on Archdeacon Thoma, proclaiming him bishop.

[52] At this point of time, Portuguese authorities requested direct intervention of Rome and hence Pope sent Carmelite Missionaries in two groups from the Propagation of the Faith to Malabar headed by Fr.

These were the three of the four counselors of Thoma I, who had defected with Francisco Garcia Mendes, Archbishop of Cranganore, before the arrival of Sebastaini, according to Jesuit reports.

[49] The Carmelite missionaries succeeded in convincing a group of St.Thomas Christians that the consecration of Archdeacon as bishop was not legitimate and Thoma I started losing his followers.

[citation needed] The Pazhayakuttukar faction remained in communion with the Catholic and preserved the traditional East Syriac (Persian) liturgy and Dyophysite Christology.

[58] Angamaly Padiyola, a declaration of the Pazhayakūr gave the history of Saint Thomas Christians up to 1787 and advocated for the appointment of a native bishop that adhered to the local traditions.

[citation needed] In 1923, Pope Pius XI (1922–1939) set up a full-fledged Syro-Malabar hierarchy with Ernakulam-Angamaly as the Metropolitan See and Augustine Kandathil as the first Head and Archbishop of the Church.

The Indian East Syriac Catholic hierarchy was restored on 21 December 1923 with Augustine Kandathil as the first Metropolitan and Head of the Church with the name Syro-Malabar.

Pope Francis appointed Cyril Vasiľ as the Pontifical Delegate and Andrews Thazhath as Apostolic Administrator for the Archdiocese in matters of solving the crisis but was unsuccessful.

Pope Francis then made a video message to the people of Ernakulam-Angamaly asking them to only do the Uniform Mass starting Christmas and saying there will be punishment for those who do not.

The third was traditionally used on the Epiphany and the feasts of St. John the Baptist and of the Greek Doctors, both of which occur in Epiphany-tide on the Wednesday of the Rogation of the Ninevites, and on Maundy Thursday.

A restored Eucharistic liturgy, drawing on the original East Syriac sources, was approved by Pope Pius XII in 1957, and for the first time on the feast of St. Thomas on 3 July 1962 the vernacular, Malayalam, was introduced for the celebration of the Syro-Malabar Qurbana.

[69] The aftermath of the so-called Synod of Diamper was that any texts related to Nestorius were systematically burnt by the Jesuits, who represented and ruled the Latin Church of India in 1599.

[citation needed] Liturgical latinisation was furthered in 1896 by Ladislaus Zaleski, the Apostolic Delegate to India, who requested permission to translate the Roman Pontifical into Syriac.

A large number of Syro-Malabarians had schismed and joined with Assyrians at that time and various delayed the approval of this translation, until in 1934 Pope Pius XI stated that latinization was to no longer be encouraged.

For judicial activities there is the major archiepiscopal ordinary tribunal formed in accordance with CCEO which has a statutes and sufficient personnel, with a president as its head.

Five of them are archeparchies (each administered by a Metropolitan Archbishop) leading the ecclesiastical provinces of the church at present, all in Kerala: Ernakulam-Angamaly, Changanacherry, Trichur, Tellicherry, and Kottayam.

Archeparchy of Kottayam enjoys personal jurisdiction over the Southist (Knanaya) Syro-Malabar catholics whereas the remaining four are with mutually exclusive territories.

These have another 13 suffragan eparchies: Bhadravathi, Belthangady, Irinjalakuda, Kanjirapally, Kothamangalam, Idukki, Mananthavady, Mandya, Palai, Palghat, Ramanathapuram, Thamarassery, and Thuckalay within the existing provinces of the church.

There are 13 further eparchies within the canonical territory of the Major Archiepiscopal Church of which Adilabad, Bijnor, Chanda, Gorakhpur, Jagdalpur, Rajkot, Sagar, Satna, and Ujjain in India are with exclusive jurisdiction within Latin provinces and Kalyan, Faridabad, Hosur and Shamshabad are with personal jurisdiction over Syro-Malabar catholics in India.

The Religious Congregations are divided in the Eastern Catholic Church Law (Code of Canons of the Oriental Churches – CCEO) as Monasteries, Hermitages, Orders, Congregations, Societies of Common Life in the Manner of Religious, Secular Institutes, and Societies of Apostolic Life.

[23][14] According to the 2011 census of India, Syro-Malabar Catholics in Kerala makes up around 2.35 million and thus they are the largest Christian body in the state.