Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/745

 THOMAS

681

THOIklAS

imo they oovild not be found and were lost tlirough loinc carelessness; dc Couto asserts the same in the jassage quoted above and also elsewhere. In 1806 it the suggestion of Rev. Claude Buchanan, Colonel Vlacaulay, the British resident, ordered a careful learch fcr them and they turned up in the record room )f Cochin town. The tables then found contained (1) he grant to Irani Cortton of Cranganore, and (2) the ^uilon, but those of the grant to Thomas Cana were lot among them; had they not been removed they vovild liave been found with the other plates; this con- ii-ms t he statement of the writer of the "Report" that he.\- ha<l been taken to Portugal. From what is ittitcd in the royal deed to Thomas Cana it may be .^ken for granted that the latter brought with him a iinall colonj' of Syrians from Mesopotamia, for the privileges conceded include his companions, both ncn and women, and all his relations.
 * et (if plates of the grant to Maruvan Sopir Iso of

VII. Besides the arrival of Thomas Cana and his lolony, by which the earlj^ Christians benefited con- siderably, the "Report" also lecords the arrival on his coast of two individuals named Soper Iso and Prodho; they are said to have been brothers and are >upi«ised to have been Syrians. The "Report" gives he following details: they came to possess a promon- ory opposite Paliport on the north side, which is 'alied Maliankara, and thej' entered the port with a arge load of timber to build a church; and in the Chal- iean books of this Serra there is no mention of them, >xcept that they were brothers, came to Quilon, built a
 * hurch there, and worked some miracles. After

leath they were buried in the church they had erected; t is said that thej built other smaller churches in the 'oiintrj-; they were regarded as pious men and were alcr called saints, their own church was eventually li-ilii'atcd to them as well as others in the country. •Vrrlilji.shop Alexis Menezes afterwards changed the lidication of these churches to other saints in the l{i>man Calendar. There is one important item that "oimdation of (Quilon." (This era commences from 25 Vugust, A. D. 82.5, and the date will thus be a. d. 925). ! he .-second of the aforesaid copper-plates mentions Mcruvan Sober Iso, one of the above two brothers, rhe "Report" also mjikes mention of pilgrims com- ing from Mesopotamia to visit the shrine of the Apos- tle at Mylapur; some of these at times would settle there and others in Malabar. It may be stated here that the Syrians of Malabar are as a body natives of the land by descent, and the Syriac trait in them is that of their liturgy, which is in the Syriac language. They call themselves S.vrians by way of distinction From the other body of Christians on the coast, who belong to the Latin Rite. The honorific appellation bestowed ujxjn them by the rulers of the country is that f)f Ma/ila, which signifies great son or child, and they are commonly so called by the people; this ap- pellation had also been given to the descendants of Arabs in the country; the St. Thomas Christians now prefer to be calliid Xasrani (Nazarenes), the designa- tion given by the Mohammedans to all Christians.
 * he "Report" has preser\-ed: "the said brothers built
 * he church of Quilon in the hundredth year after the

VIII. There are certain stone crosses of ancient date in southern India, bearing inscriptions in Pahlavi letters. Extraordinary legends have been spread about them in some parts of Europe; the present writer was shown an engraving purporting to repro- duce one of them, with a legend of the Apostolate and martyrdom of St. Thomas, a reproduction of the in- scription on his cross. This was attached to the cal- endar of one of the dioceses of France, and this writer w;is iksked if it were authentic.

To prevent the spreading of such reports it may be useful to state here that of these crosses one is in the Church of Mount St. Thomas, Mylapur, discovered in 1547 after the arrival of the Portuguese in India; the

other is in the church of Kottayam, Malabar. Both are of Nestorian origin, are engraved as a bas-relief on a flat stone with ornamental decorations around the cross, and bear an inscription. The inscription has been variously read. Dr. Burnell, an Indian an- tiquary, says that both crosses bear the same inscrip- tion, and offer the following reading: "In punishment by the cross was the suffering of this one. Who is the true Christ, God above and Guide ever pure. " These crosses bear some resemblance to the Syro-Chinese Nestorian monument discovered in 1625 at Singan-fu, an ancient capital of China, but erected in 7.S1, ami commemorating the arrival in China of Chaldean Nestorian missionaries in 636.

IX. Of the prelates who governed the Church in India after the Apostle's death very little is known; that little is collected and reproduced here. John the Persian, who was present at tlic Council of Nice (325), is the first known to history claiming the title. In his signature to the decrees of the council he styles him- self; John the Persian [presiding] over the churches in all Persia and Great India. The designation implies that he was the [primate] Metropolitan of Persia and also the Bishop of Great India. As metropolitan and chief bishop of the East he may have represented at the council the Catholics of Seleucia. His control of the Church in India could only have been exercised by his sending priests under his jurisdiction to min- ister to those Christians. It is not known at what date India fu-st commenced to have rcsi<lent bishops; but between the years 530-35 Cosmas Indic.opleustes in his "Topographia" informs us of the presence of a bishop residing at Caliana, the modern Kalyan at a short distance from Bombay. That residence was, in all probability, chosen because it was then the chief port of commerce on the west coast of India, and had easy access and communication with Persia. We know later of a contention which took place between Jesuab of Adiabene the Nestorian Patriarch and Sim- eon of Ravardshir, the Metropolitan of Persia, who had left India unprovided with bishops for a long period. The patriarch reproached him severely for this gross neglect. We may take it that up to the period 650-60 the bishops sent to India, as Cosmas has said, were consecrated in Persia, but after this gross neglect the patriarch reserved to himself the choice and consecration of the prelates he sent out to India, and this practice was continued till the arrival of the Portuguese on the coast in 1504.

Le Quien places the two brothers Soper Iso anfl Prodhoonthelist of bishops of India, but Indian tradi- tion gives it no support, and in this the Brit isli M uscum MS. Report and Gouvea (Jornada, p. 5) concur. The brothers were known as church-builders, and were reputed to be holy men. Moreover, to include Thomas Cana in the hst of bishops is preposterous on the face of the evidence of the copper-]ilate grant. The "Report" mentions a long period when there was neither bishop nor priest surviving in the land, for they had all died out; the only clerical survival was a deacon far advanced in age. The ignorant Christians, finding themselves without prelates, made him say Mass and even ordain others, but as soon as prelates came from Babylon they put a stop to this disorder. The nex-t authentic information we have on this head comes from the Vatican Library and has been pub- lished by Assemani (Bibl. Or., Ill, 589). It consists of a statement concerning two Nestorian bishop.s and their companions and a letter from the former written in Syriac to the patriarch announcing tlii'ir arrival, dated 1504; there is a translation in Latin added to the documents. In 1490 the Christians of Malabar despatched three messengers to ask the Nestorian Patriarch to send out bishops; one died on the jour- ney, the other two presente<l themselves before the patriarch and delivered their message; two monks were selected and the Patriarch consecrated them