In the previous post, we discussed about churches mentioned in Jornada (1606) and the list compiled by Fr. Bernard Thoma. In this post, I will introduce some other church lists of St. Thomas Syrian Christians from the 17th and the 18th centuries. A majority of them have appeared in the reports and documents of Portuguese missionaries. The lists may not be perfect in the sense that they might be incomplete or represent churches from a particular group or diocese only. Some of the sites are unidentifiable because of the various modes of spelling accounted for by foreign languages, and there are a few repetitions of the names as well. Nevertheless, these lists have been very useful in getting an overall picture of the churches, their geographical distribution, the local kingdoms to which they were subjected, their affiliation to the major denominations, the patron saints to which they were dedicated etc. It should be noted that most of these lists are contributed by Catholic Portuguese authors, who consider the non-Catholic Syrians as a heretical group, and usually address them as Schismatici, Schismatique, Schismaticae etc. However, the more acceptable and correct expressions would be, Romo-Syrians (Catholics), Syrian-Jacobites and Latin (non-Syrian Catholics). Similarly, although the term Malabar refers to the northern districts of Kerala, the Portuguese authors use the “Church of Serra” (Malabar) to indicate the general habitat of the St Thomas Christians. At first, we will see three church lists of the 18th century that are more detailed and elaborate.
Church Lists of Raulin (1745), Du Perron (1771) and Paulinus (1794)
1) The first to compile a list of churches in Kerala is perhaps the Augustinian missionary, Fr. Joannes Facundi Raulin, who is also responsible for the Latin translation of Gouvea’s Jornada in 1745. In this translation, ‘Historia Ecclesiae Malabarica’ (1745, pp. 428-429), he provides us a list of 128 churches in Kerala, divided into 15-Latin; 28 Syrian or Jacobite [Thomas Whitehouse (1873), enumerates 30 Syrian churches]; and 85 Romo-Syrian or Catholic and mixed (shared by Catholics and Jacobites) churches (83, according to Whitehouse).
2) The celebrated French orientalist, Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil Duperron spent a month at Kerala in 1758, and when he published a French translation of the Zend-Avesta in 1771, he included a list of churches from Malabar [Zend Avesta, 1771 (French), vol. 1, pp. 183-189]. Du Perron’s list has 140 churches and 14 oratories distributed in 12 kingdoms with information regarding their affiliation and patron saints.
3) The third list prepared by the end of 18th century is the most detailed. It is from an Austrian Carmelite missionary and orientalist, Paulinus (Paulino) A. S. Bartholomaeo. Paulinus, who spent 13 years in Kerala (1776-1789), became the Rector of Verapoly Seminary from 1779-82, and was an Apostolic Visitator of Malabar. He was not only a zealous missionary, but a voracious writer, who authored more than 24 works, including his famous, ‘India Orientalis Christiana’ (1794), which is a study of the Carmelite missions in India in the late 18th century. He provides list of 171 churches and 11 oratories, distributed under: Catholic-74 churches & 9 oratories; Jacobites-35 churches; Latin-16 churches and 2 oratories; Latin (under Cochin Diocese)-46 churches categories (India Orientalis Christiana, pp.267-269).
The list of Paulinus received more attention and has been often cited by several latter authors who studied the St. Thomas Christians of Kerala. In 1818, Thomas Yeates reproduced essentially the entire list of Paulinus in his ‘Indian Church History’ (pp. 134-138), however, he skips both the churches at Kaduthuruthy and the Latin Church at Valavaley, but has two churches from Elur instead of one in Paulinus. Another important list to consider is from Thomas Whitehouse (1873), who compares churches from Jornada (43 churches), Raulin (81 churches), Du Perron (115 & 3 oratories), Paulinus (115 & 5 oratories), together with names of 104 churches from his period, in ‘Lingerings of Light in a Dark Land’, 1873, Appendix A (pp. 293-300). I will be referring to the lists of Raulin, Du Perron and Paulinus frequently in this blog while discussing about individual churches.
Church Lists of the 17th Century
Though, we discussed about the churches mentioned in Jornada (1606) and the list published by Fr. Bernard in 1921 based on that, it must be noted that Gouvea does not give a specific list of churches in the Jornada. In fact, it is hard to find any noticeable list of Malabar churches compiled in the 17th century. However, we have a few reports and letters from the Portuguese missionaries with details of some important Christian settlements and churches. A special mention needs to be done for three such documents.
1) The first document is a report by Bishop Francis Roz, the Archbishop of Angamaly (1599-1608) and Cranganore (1608-1624), who had also accompanied Archbishop Menezes in his journeys through Malabar (1599), Later, he visited many of the St. Thomas Christian settlements on his own. He wrote a long report about the St. Thomas Christians and their churches. A rare Portuguese document dated 1603/1604, currently preserved in British Museum Library volume MS Add. 9853, has this report attributed to Roz. The title of the document is variously labelled as: 'Relação da Serra’ ;‘Relação sobre a Serra–feito em 1604’; 'Relação da Christandade da Serra de 1604'; and 'Relação da Christandade de S. Thomè feyta pelo Sor Bispo Dom Francisco Roz'. The document lists around 30 St. Thomas Christian churches of Malabar in the early 17th century, and Roz gives a separate section for miracles related to 15 churches.
2) The second is a long letter written by Fr. John Mary Campori, who was the secretary of Bishop Francis Roz, to Fr. Francis de Oliveyra, rector of the College of Cranganore. The letter dated 20th August, 1618 from Vaipicota College, is a detailed report of his expeditions among the St. Thomas Christians, which lasted 11 months and a visit to 11 churches. We learn around 16 Christian settlements from this eyewitness account.
3) Finally, we have the two books written by the Carmelite Missionary and the first Apostolic Commissary to Malabar, Joseph of St. Mary Sebastiani, who was sent to Malabar twice by the Roman Pontiff, Alexander VII, to settle the divisions that arouse after the Coonan Cross Oath in 1653. His missions in Malabar were from the periods of 5 February, 1657 to 7 January, 1658 and 14 May, 1661 to 14 February 1663. He published his expeditions in 2 volumes, Prima Speditione all'Indie Orientali (First Expedition to the East Indies) and Seconda Speditione all'Indie Orientali (Second Expedition to the East Indies), from Rome in 1666 and 1672, respectively. In these important documents about the St. Thomas Christians, Sebastiani gives a detailed account of his twin missions and the churches and congregations visited, which comes around 25.
4) There is however, a very unique document-an undated Jesuit report about the Churches of the St. Thomas Christians together with their corresponding kingdom in the 17th century; The original document, preserved in the Archivum Sacrae Congregationis de Propaganda Fide of Rome (APF, SOCG, 233, ff. 279-280) is entitled “Nomi di Terre e Villagi dove stanno le Chiese delli Christiani di S. Tomaso Apostolo nell' Indie Orientali’. The full list has been reproduced by Jacob Koothur Kurian in ‘The Efforts for Reconciliation with a Reference to the Origin of Ecclesial Divisions after the Coonan Cross Revolution (1653-1665), 2008’. This interesting document has the names of 88 churches distributed over 26 kingdoms and nobilities of Kerala.
5) Among the writings of Fr. Mathew of St. Joseph, O. C. D., who first arrived in Malabar in 1657, as a companion of Fr. Sebastiani, there is said to be a report on the Malabar Church containing a list of the kingdoms and a list of all the churches in those kingdoms (Jacob Kollaparambil, 'Historical Sources on Knanites', 1986).
6) The Catholic Encyclopedia mentions that before departing from Kerala in 1663, Joseph Sebastiani handed to the Dutch Government of Cochin a list of 84 churches that were under his control. I am yet to confirm if such a list exists or has been published anywhere.
Church Lists of the 18th Century
When we come to the 18th Century there is no shortage of church lists. The following are some important ones, arranged in an ascending chronological order.
1) 1704- List of 68 Catholic Churches from a report of Joao Ribeiro S. J., Archbishop of Crangannore dated: 23 October, 1704
2) 1762- 48 Romo-Syrian and 17 Latin churches from a questionnaire prepared by Carlo (Charles) of St. Conrad, procurator of Malabar Mission (APF, SOCP, 54, ff. 6r-13v & APF, SC (IOC) 40, ff. 272v-274v. & ff. 282r-284r)
3) 1766- 51 Syrian and 18 Latin churches from a questionnaire prepared by Florence of Jesu, the Vicar Apostolic on November 9, 1766 ( APF, SOCP 55, ff. 477r-485r)
4) 1767-List of 45 Syrian Catholic churches under the Jurisdiction of Varapuzha (Bernard Thoma, Mar Thoma Christianikal, 1921)
5) 1776-List of 37 Syrian Catholic churches that signed the Padiola of Alangat against Missionaries, dated: 15 February 1776, before bishop, Salesius
6) 1781- List of 22 churches under the Dutch East Indian Company according to Adriaan Moens (Selections from the Records of the Madras Government, Dutch Records, no. 13, 'The Dutch in Malabar’, English translation by Galletti, A., van der Burg, A. J., and Groot, P., 1911)
7) 1786-List of 45 Syrian Catholic Churches in a report of Bishop Aloysius Mary of Jesus to Propaganda Congregation, dated: March 24, 1786. His proposal was to visit the churches in three rounds starting always at Varapuzha. The list also names additional 16 churches, mostly Latin.
8) 1786- List of 44 Syrian Catholic churches under the Jurisdiction of Varapuzha (Bernard Thoma, Mar Thoma Christianikal, 1921)
9) 1787- List of 84 churches that signed the Angamaly Padiola-1, dated: 1 February, 1787 (Bernard Thoma, Mar Thoma Christianikal, 1921)
10) 1787- List of 48 churches that signed the Angamaly Padiola 2, dated: 2 February, 1787 (Bernard Thoma, Mar Thoma Christianikal, 1921)
11) 1787- List of 63 churches in Travancore State based on a petition by Thachil Mathu Tharakan submitted to the king of Travancore (Bernard Thoma, Mar Thoma Christianikal, 1921)
12) 1872- List of 25 Pazhayakoottu (Romo-Syrians) & 44 Puthenkoottu (Syrian-Jacobites) churches. The list is published by Curian G., CMS in ‘An Essay on the Malabar Syrian Church and Community’ or ‘Viruthu Prakaranam’. Although, the list is from the 19th century, it enumerates the churches after Coonan Cross Oath in1653.
I am sure that more lists exist from the 18th century. However, I have only included the ones which are accessible to me, mostly via secondary sources. A good share of the original lists compiled by the Portuguese are preserved in the Archives of Vatican, typically not open to the public and accessed by prior appointment only. Luckily, we have several studies carried out in this field, where the authors had direct access to the original sources and they have been much helpful in understanding the population and statistics of the St. Thomas Christians before the 19th century. I will be going through these church lists while discussing about the individual churches in the blog.
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