Context and Text

Fr. Francis Dionisio S.J. was the Rector of the Jesuit Seminary in Cochin, during late 1500s. In a report addressed to his Superior General dated Jan. 4, 1578, he provides a concise account of the history of the Christians of Malankara: one that diverges in major points from the native tradition(s).

These Christians say that the glorious St. Thomas came from [Socotra] to preach in this Malabar and went to the Choromandel, which is more or less two hundred leagues away from this city to the south. The glorious saint made many disciples by his preaching, and for some differences which a pagan king had with him, the glorious saint, staying at prayer on a mountain, a league away from the Portuguese settlement, was killed, pierced by a lance as ordered by the King. This is held as tradition very much accepted among the pagans as well as the Christians. .. I knew the things written below on information received from old and trustworthy persons; and in these all are concordant, because they keep these as firm tradition, and as written in books and sung in their songs. .. With the passing of time it happened that the Christians were persecuted by the pagan king of that country, who maltreated them for being Christians and for having reverence to the body of the Saint. Hence they say the glorious Apostle pulled back his hand to the sepulchre, and they fled from that country leaving back the sepulchre well mended and protected. And they came fleeing to this Malabar and its forests coming with them some honorable Christians. .. And so, they affirm, there are many such people far inside the forest and in the kingdom of Travancor. After many years came two holy men from Babylon to Quilon. .. After that came a Christian by name Quinai Thoma, native of Babylon, a merchant, who disembarked at Cranganor and began negotiating his merchandise. .. It is now 753 years since this Quinai Thoma came from Babylon. All this is according to an inscription written on a sheet of iron, which the Portugues found in the possession of these Christians. This is what is known with certainty about the origin of these Christians on information gathered from books and from tradition handed down by old people and Catanars, i, e. the priests of these Christians. Hence it happens that the Christianity holds affection for, and entertains, the bishops who come from Babylonia and Syria, They say that their Christianity had its origin from there, and it conserved itself and increased with those who came from there. (Wicki S.J., Documenta Indica XII:131-143; quot. Jacob Vellian ed., Symposium on Knanites, pp. 6-7).

Relocation from Mylapore

The first major point to be noted is Dionisio's unique note of a persecution of the Thomasine Christians in the Coromandel Coast by the Hindu rulers, and their subsequent migration to Malabar. Perczel 2018 posits, largely based on Fr. Mattai Vettikkunnel's Events that Befell the Syrians of Malayalam (1720), that the ninth-century Persian (ecclesiastical) "colonization" of Malankara took place after the persecution and destruction of the Christian communities in the Eastern coast, and their subsequent resettlement to Malabar.

This coheres with Dionisio's narrative. There existed Thomasine communities on the shores of both the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal: however, the native Church's center of gravity shifted to Malabar after the ninth century, following the persecution attributed to Māṇikkavācakar, the ninth-century Shaivite scholar and poet, by native sources (including Vettikkunnel 1720 and the Kandanad Grandhavari).

Chronology: Edessan and Persian Migrations

The local tradition, at least since the Portuguese arrival, as reported by Ros. S. J. in 1604 as well as subsequent native sources including Vettikkunnel 1720, has been that Knai Thoma and his group migrated in "345 AD", and that the Persian migration led by Sapir Iso and Proth occurred centuries later, ca. "825 AD". Dionisio, on the other hand, provides a differing chronology. After the Mylaporean persecution and migration to Malabar, there came "two holy men from Babylon to Quilon", i.e. Sapir and Proth. After them came Knai Thoma, on "825 AD", and this chronology + date is allegedly supported by an ancient inscription, as well as "books and.. tradition handed down by old people and priests".

Now, we could keep aside Dionisio's account if he was the only source supporting this chronology. Apart from him, however, Diogo do Couto (1611) as well as Mar Gabriel (1709) provide "811" and "745" as the dates for the Edessan migration, respectively. Besides these non-native sources, as Perczel 2018 has observed, even the native sources - particularly Vettikkunnel 1720 and Ittoop 1860 - which have "345" as the date, state that the Edessan migration occurred after the Mylaporean persecution and subsequent migration, explicitly connecting this with the career of Māṇikkavācakar (as for the erroneous hypothesis of Knight 2019 and a couple others that this should be considered to be referring to Mani, the third-century Parthian prophet, I will address this in a later post).

Then there set out a sorcerer by the name of Manikka-Vacher who opposed the Way and Baptism, and arriving in Mylapore he performed many many conjurings and forbade Baptismal immersions; and because of this all the leading figures of the Way, and the Elders, abandoned Baptism and believed Manikka-Vacher. .. In those days in the Kingdom of Edessa, because of a vision seen in a dream by the Bishop who ruled there and by the decree of the Catholicos of the East (they) deputed a merchant called Thoma, a Nazarani who dwelt in Jerusalem... (Events that Befell the Syrians of Malayalam, Malayalam Recension).

Therefore, it is quite probable that Knai Thoma's migration occurred after the Persian migration of Sapir Iso and Proth, sometime in the late ninth-century.

"Interest" in Syro-Persian Bishops

Lastly, Dionisio provides his General with a reason why the native Christians holds affection for bishops who come from "Babylonia and Syria": due to the positive changes brought by Knai Thoma and his group(s), whose commercial activities helped the native communities flourish. In other words, the Persian connection - though it existed prior to the ninth-century (cf. Cath-Pat. Timothy I's Letter to the Arken of India) - was strengthened by the Edessan Migration of the ninth century.