FAITH SHARING SERIES                        #7 

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) 

The Indian Nazrani Church had always remained in communion with and under the spiritual and ecclesial leadership of the Catholicos-Patriarch of the Persian “Church of the East”, whose base was in Iraq. For a major period of its history, the Church of the East, for no fault of its own, had fallen out of communication and communion with the Western Churches. But the fact that the faith of the Church of the East had always remained orthodox has now been recognized. (Common Christological Declaration between Mar John Paul II Papa and Catholicos-Patriarch Dinkha IV, 11^th November 1994, refers. We will see this Declaration in detail later on, along with the discussion on Nestorianism). However, the above alienation of the Persian Church with the Western Christianity had no direct effect on the Malabar Nazranis. The Indian Nazranis had no direct and active contact with the Christians of the rest of the world, except thru the Persian Church. The theological aspects of any perceived differences between the West and the Persian Church were beyond the life of the Indian Nazranis and they were not party to any of the so called imaginary disputes.  However, ancient records show that the Malabar Church had always prayed for the Bishop of Rome, before the name of the Persian Patriarch, during the celebration of Holy Qurbana (dyptics). We see that Mar Mar Shimun VIII Yohannan Sulaqa the newly appointed Patriarch of the Church of the East traveled to Rome and met the Mar Papa, in 1553, and ensure communion with the See of Rome. Mar Sulaqa was consecrated with the title of "Patriarch of the Chaldeans” by Mar Papa. Those who differed with Sulaqa formed the Assyrian Church of the East as the successor of the (original) Church of the East. The bishops sent to India, including our dear Mar Abraham were appointed by Patriarch Sulaqa and Patriarchs preceding him. This was the state of the Nazrani Church when the Portuguese landed on the shores of Malabar. The missionaries found the ways of faith of the Nazranis to be orthodox and true, and were very appreciative of this fact. The Nazranis extended a cordial fellowship to their brothers in faith from the West. The colonialists wanted help of the Nazranis to establish their trading interests in Malabar and to that extent they were very friendly towards them, in the beginning. They kept their motive (of subjugating the Nazranis to the Latin regime) hidden close to their chest, at first. 

Once the Westerners started getting the upper hand in the affairs of the Malabar Church, they began finding fault with everything that the Nazranis did: their prayers, their churches and its layout, Holy Qurbana, their sacraments, their social life, everything. The Nazranis had great respect and love for their Kathnars and the East Syrian bishop. The selection and training of Kathanrs of the Malabar Church was done in a unique and indigenous manner. Kathnars were selected always for a particular local Church (Edavaka). Selection of the candidates was done by the local Palliyogam. The candidate is then entrusted to the care of a senior scholarly teacher (Malpan), who would take him under his wing and give him a thorough formation, extending over many years, in Suriyani language, East Syriac theology and Holy Qurbana. Once the Malpan is satisfied with the progress of the Msemmassan, and feels that he is ready to be ordained as a Kathnar, he is presented to the bishop. After satisfying himself of the suitability of the Msemmassan, the bishop administers the sacrament of priesthood and appoints him as a Kathnar. All the time during his formation and training, the Kathnar is a part of the local Church and grows in the spirituality of the Nazrani Church in relevance to the local community. There were about 40 Malpanates spread throughout the Malabar region. The influence of the Kathnars and the bishop on the Nazrani community was very strong, which the intelligent Phirangis understood. To get control of the Nazrani Church, the westerners had to get control of their priests and bishop. As a first step, they put a stop to the “Malpanate” and started a western style seminary at Kodungallore and later at Vypeen Kota and at other places. The seminarians began to be trained completely in accordance with Latin curriculum including Latin language, Latin liturgy of the hours (omission to pray the same would bring on the wrath of mortal sin!), Latin spirituality, Latin devotions, western philosophy; and western dressing and even western table manners. They also wanted to make wholesale changes to the Holy Qurbana, the sacraments, sacramentals, the prayer regimen, the feast days and other Nazrani traditions and replace them with practices in accordance with Latin theology. Note that the missionaries had arrived fully prepared and strengthened with the latest theological and ecclesial developments in the Latin Church in conformity with the “Counter Reformation” movement which was an aggressive response to the Protestant reformation. Also, moreover, the Portuguese were under the intoxication of Padroado (Patronage) power formally granted to the King of Portugal by the Vatican in 1514 (Pope Leo X), which in effect divided the Earth into two parts and granted the Eastern half to the Portuguese and the Western part to the Spanish; to conquer, convert and rule the newly found territories. But it was not so easy for them to cut the Nazranis off from their East Syriac roots. The channels of communications with India, more particularly with Malabar, had completely been taken over by the Phiringis. It had become impossible for the Catholicos-Patriarch to keep in contact with his spiritual flock in Malabar. Any emissary sent by him would be intercepted by the powerful Phirangis, detained, incarcerated, sent back or dealt with in any manner which they thought appropriate. The Nazrani Archbishop of Angamally, Mar Abraham, a very venerable and docile holy bishop, was put under great duress by the invaders. He was subjected to much pressure, including great physical duress and jail time, to toe the line of the westerners and to make changes to the Nazrani sacramental and liturgical regime, according to the wishes of the Latins. He resisted as best as he could, with much mixed results. To the chagrin of the western missionaries, the bishopric reign of Mar Abraham lasted a long time (1568 to 1597) until he passed away in 1597. This was the opportunity that the Portuguese were waiting for. 

Mar Abraham(1565-1597)
Metropolitan and the Gate of All India.
Diocese	Angamally
Installed	31st of January 1565
Term ended	1597
Predecessor	Mar Joseph- Brother of first Chaldean Patriarch Shimun VIII Yohannan Sulaqa Mar Joseph Sulaqa of India, held the office from 1556 to 1568 of Metropolitan of the Thomas Christians in South India
Orders
Ordination	1565 by Pope Pius IV
Personal details
Died	1597 Angamali
Buried	Mar Abraham died in January 1597 at Angamaly and his body was buried in the Cathedral church (St. Hormis or East Church, Angamally

 

Church of Mar Hormisdas, the Cathedral church,

which was built by Mar Abraham.

 

 The young (37 year old) Latin archbishop of Goa, Aleixo de Menezes immediately came to Malabar to take control of the Nazranis. But, it was not easy as he had thought. The archdeacon, Geevarghese of the Sleeva of the Pakalomattom family,  had already, according to the tradition of the Nazrani Church, taken control as the Administrator of the Church. Though Menezes appointed Fr. Francis Roz S.J. as the Administrator, he had to retreat and withdraw Roz from this position, in view of the strong opposition of the Nazranis. (Note that (Latin bishop) Menezes had no jurisdiction over the Suriyani Nazranis.) Menezes started visiting the Nazrani churches (Edavaka palli) and one by one he visited all the churches and made himself dear to the local people with his endearing diplomatic behavior (Mt 7:15) . He managed to bring up a rival cousin of Archdeacon Geevarghese, Thoma Kurian of the same Pakalomattom family, as a strong rival to Geevarghese. By this clever move, Geevarghese was pressurized to be pliant to the wishes of Menezes, who made further moves in a very calculated way. During his visits to the local churches of the Nazranis he selected, ordained and appointed many men as priests, by giving them just a few days or weeks of orientation, or even none at all. This was in total violation of all known canons and practices of either the Western or the Eastern churches. A total of 230 men were thus appointed by Menezes as Kathnars, all of whom would naturally be subservient to him. Menezes called for a “Synod” to be convened in June 1599, at Udayamperoor, south of Kochi. There was widespread resentment amongst the Nazranis against the convening of this so-called Synod. Menezes ordered all the clergy and lay representatives to attend the “Synod”, under threat of ex-communication. He ordered all the churches to bring all their liturgical and prayer texts and holy books to the “synod”. About 150 priests and less than 600 appointed/ selected and elected lay representatives from the Nazrani churches attended the meeting, in addition to many Portuguese Latin priests and Menezes himself. We will discuss the details of this “Synod” of Udayamperoor in our next installment of Faith Sharing Series. (#8). (Recommended reading: (1) “Synod of Diamper” by Jonas Thaliath, (2) “Jornada”, a Portuguese account and biography of Archbishop Menezes by his secretary, Antonio de Gouvea, translated into English and edited by Pius Malekandathil, published by LRC Publications, Kochi. Journada will give us a good picture of the prejudice and arrogance that the Western missionaries cultivated towards the native Nazranis and their East Syrian Patriarch and Arch Bishops.) .

(Ch 1  Liturgy-Historical Background: to continue: Faith Sharing Series #8)