The mission of the Apostles and their successors
planted the Church of Christ at various places. In divine providence (LG 23),
the Indian Church was blessed to have an apostolic foundation in 52 AD through
the evangelisation mission of St. Thomas, one of the twelve Apostles of Jesus
Christ. This Apostolic Church was in Catholic Communion from the early
centuries. It came in contact with the Syro-Chaldean Church of the Middle East
and consequently adopted the East Syrian Liturgy. In the sixteenth century,
this Apostolic Church came into direct relationship with the Western Church
through the Portuguese missionaries. The Portuguese extended the Padroado
agreement in their evangelization programme over India and wanted to bring the
Indian Church of the St. Thomas Christians under this jurisdiction. The Church
in India which was rooted in the socio-cultural environment and which enjoyed
autonomy in internal administration in communion with the Universal Church
resisted the unwanted intervention of the Portuguese who brought with them the
Western ecclesiastical traditions. The Portuguese missionaries, ignorant of the
Oriental traditions of the Indian Church, had the conviction that anything
different from the Western Church was schism and heresy. Hence they wanted to
latinize the Syrian Christians of India. In 1599 Bishop Franciz Roz (1599-1624)
convoked a Synod at Diamper and imposed latinization on the Apostolic Church of
India. This was a blow to the identity of the Indian Church. However, the
relation continued till the beginning of the second half of the seventeenth
century. The Church of St.Thomas Christians could not withstand any more the
denial of her autonomy. The initial resistance slowly gave way to
discontentment, which ended up with the revolt in 1653 known as the Koonan Cross
Oath. Thus, the one Church of the St.Thomas Christians was split into two. A
large majority of the broken-away-group hesitated to sever ties with Rome and
they remained in communion with Rome, but, under the Latin Hierarchy. This group
came to be called the Pazhayak
