FAITH SHARING SERIES                       #6

And you will know the truth,

And the very truth will make you free. (Jn 8:32) 

Chapter 1 (contd) 

Liturgy of Mar Thoma Nazranis of India

The great Suppression and painful Rebirth 
 

Historical Background (contd)  

Earliest history of the Mar Thoma Nazrani Church of India (Malabar) during the first few centuries are not found directly recorded anywhere. Adequate secondary evidence from writings of early Church Fathers (Mar Apraim, St. Jerome etc) and other documents (Ecclesiastical History by Eusebius, Acts of Thomas etc) do give us a very good picture of the evangelizing ministry of Mar Thoma in  India.  And it is very safe to assume that Mar Thoma, after establishing the Churches, did appoint bishop(s) and presbyters to take care of the flock, because that is exactly what all apostles did at new communities, to ensure apostolic succession. We find that from second century onwards, bishops appointed by the Patriarch of the Church of the East served the Indian Church. These bishop(s) were the only persons of Persian origin who served, in authority, in Malabar. The priests and all other ecclesial leaders (lay or otherwise) were all from within the local society itself. The Nazranis considered themselves as part of the Church presided over by the Patriarch of the Church of the East. We see that Church of the East was blessed with the great theological school at Edessa and also with many well known scholars, which helped the Church to grow to great heights in Nazrani faith and theology. The Malabar Church found it comfortable and convenient to accept the spiritual leadership of the Persians as well as to follow the most ancient and rich Liturgy that the Church of the East celebrated. During the early centuries of Christendom, while the Western Church in Roman Empire underwent great persecution during the pre-Constantine era, the Churches in the East suffered much harsher sufferings during its entire history. The Church of the East in Persia had to suffer a great deal also during the atrocious regimes of many Zoroastrian rulers and gave more martyrs to the faith than the Western Church, though this fact is not much circulated in the historical forums. Though the Church of the East was always a suffering Church, its sister, the Indian Nazrani Church had a relatively peaceful existence, right up to sixteenth century. No wonder we find several migrations that took place from Persia and surrounding areas to India, more particularly to Malabar, in early centuries, to escape persecution. Noteworthy amongst these migrations is the one by a group of Persian Nazranis who fled their country, to escape the most severe brutalities of the ruler Shapur II, in AD 341. (Please read “The Church of the East” by Mar Bawai Soro) This large group of refugees came to the peaceful shores of Malabar and was welcomed by the local Nazranis, and became part of the Malabar Church. We also find large groups of Armenian Christians too fleeing, much later, to escape Turkish genocide of Christians. (The largest group of Christians ever perished in a single persecution was in the Armenian Genocide, close to 2 million. (Please read “The Burning Tigris”, by Peter Balakian). The liturgy of the Armenians does have much in common with the “Anaphora of Addai and Mari”, which we will discuss in a later chapter comparing liturgies of different Churches. According to Armenian Archives at New Delhi (thanks to AGBU, New York) the Armenians have connections with Malabar Nazranis prior to 8^th century.     

The first liturgy that was formed in Jerusalem, has come down to the modern times, much enhanced and developed thru the efforts of great scholars and fathers of the Western and Eastern Churches. Also, there are Eucharistic liturgies, especially in the West, which got formed and developed in later centuries as well. We find that while Eucharistic liturgies developed in all Churches over the centuries, to enhance their celebrations and to make them more meaningful and expressive, in the Eastern Churches the theological aspects of the celebrations remained unaltered. But, in the West, we find that the Eucharistic theology too underwent many changes over the period, especially in the first half of the second millennium. (We shall be discussing more on this subject in later chapters.) In the Roman Church, Greek gave way to Latin as the liturgical language by 6^th century. From then on, Latin continued to be the sole liturgical language of the Roman Church until after the latest council of Vatican II. In the eastern half of the Empire, Greek was the prominent language of the people as well their liturgical language. With the passage of time, in the Eastern Churches, use of local (people’s) languages, along with Greek, became the language of worship by the first half of the second millennium. The Anteochean Churches used a mix of West Syriac and local language for their worship. Areas under Church of the East (Persian Church) and the Indian Nazrani Church, however, continued their use of Aramaic (East Syriac) for their liturgical celebrations. This was mainly because of the fact that the East Syriac Nazranis of both Persia and Malabar had great love and reverence for Aramaic, as it was the holy language spoken by our Lord, M’siha, by his parents and by all the apostles. Also, we find that the Malabar Nazranis had a good working knowledge of Aramaic right until sixteenth century. Till then, Aramaic was used for much of the commerce between Malabar and West Asia. Role of Jewish and Nazrani men were quite prominent in trade and business. Nazrani Cathnars (priests) were well versed in the Aramaic language, as they were trained under selected malpans (senior teacher-priests) in the required knowledge and skills to be a Nazrani Cathnar. After the arrival of the Europeans, the Western colonists took control of the commerce and lines of communications between the Indian harbors and the rest of the world. Once the control of the Nazrani Church was also wrested by them, one of their first actions was to put a stop to the Malpanates and to have all the candidates for priesthood to be trained in the Western manner, in the seminary system. Slowly, but surely, Aramaic language was given a short shrift. Even though Aramaic was getting more and more foreign to them, the Nazranis never sacrificed their ardent love for this holy language, a fact well known to the Phiringees. (We will discuss more of these later).

The main objective of the Portuguese Jesuits, and later of the Italian Carmelites, was to subjugate the Indian (Suriyani) Nazrani Church and make it a Latin subordinate Church.  Initially the Westerners were very appreciative of the faith practices and worshipping regime of the Nazranis. This is recorded by the many communications send by the early Jesuits to their Superior General and also to the Holy See. Noteworthy among them is a communication sent by (St.) Francis Xavier in great laudatory manner, about the religious practices and  faith life of the Nazranis, including their exclusive use of the term “Mother of Christ”, in preference to the Roman usage of “Mother of God”. This initial fraternal feelings between the visitors and the home church, soon gave way to a “Master-subordinate” relationship, as the visitors surreptitiously became invaders. The Firangees suddenly started finding that all practices of the Nazranis, other than those confirming to Latin spirituality and theology, to be heretic. They started taking steps to become absolute masters of the Nazrani church by whatever possible means. Note that at this time, the Nazrani Church was headed by Mar Abraham, a venerable holy bishop appointed by the Persian East Syriac (Chaldean) Patriarch, who was in communion with the See of Rome. After suffering much persecution, mentally and physically, at the hands of the Portuguese, the long reign of Mar Abraham, came to an end with his death in 1598. The Western colonists wasted no time to wrest full control of the Nazrani Church. They laid out their masterly moves in a very clever and surreptitious way. We will discuss the aftermath of the death of Mar Abraham, leading to the so called “Synod” of Udayamperoor in our next discussion in the Series,

A brief note. A relevant doubt has arisen as to the usefulness of this study of the unfortunate historical developments. “Will it not be injecting unnecessary animosity against some groups or Church? What purpose would it serve in this day and age in our journey to the future, by talking about the unfortunate wounds created in the past? All the persons concerned are dead and gone, for their rewards. Let us forget about them and accept what is present and carry on.”  

Yes, whatever has happened in history, however painful it might have been, is a thing of the past. It is impossible to undo history. Lots of wrongs, and some good things too, were done by many of these players of history. Such actions have made indelible marks on the body of the Nazrani Church, much of it quite painful at the time, the effects of which are being felt even to this day. Yes, most of the people who perpetrated such actions were motivated by intentions, which they thought were right at the time, though some of their actions cannot be justified by any stretch of Christian charity. The purpose of revisiting the historical background, as relevant to our study, is purely in accordance with the call of the Church Fathers of Vatican II, vide “ORIENTALIUM ECCLESIARUM” Para 6: “……All members of the Eastern Rite should know and be convinced ………….that they can and should know that if they have fallen away from …………..their liturgical rite and their established way of life,……… owing to contingencies of times and persons,………. they should attain to an ever greater knowledge and a more exact use of them, and they should take steps to return to their ancestral traditions.” How can we take steps to return to our ancestral tradition, unless we know where and how we went astray. We should hold no animosity or ill-will towards any person or Church for whatever historical wrongs have been committed either directly or indirectly. “May the souls of all the concerned people rest in Peace.”   

 (Ch 1  Liturgy-Historical Background: to continue: Faith Sharing Series #7)