Portal:Indian Christianity/Selected article/1
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Malankara Church of India is the Christian church believed to be started by St. Thomas, the apostle of Jesus Christ. Maliankara, a place near Muziris, (now known as Pattanam, near Cochin on the Malabar Coast), where Thomas the Apostle first landed in Kerala in AD 52, was the headquarters of the Indian Christian church from the 1st century AD. It is also known as Church of Malabar or Malabar Church. Hence the Christians here are known as Malankara Nazarenes , Saint Thomas Christians, Malabar Christians and Malankara Christians. The history of Indian Christianity hence started 15 centuries even before the arrival of European missionaries in India.
According to tradition, it was on a trading vessel plying between Alexandria and the Malabar coast that St. Thomas the Apostle arrived in Kodungallur or Cranganore (കൊടുങ്ങല്ലൂര്)in AD 52. Modern developments in archaeology, anthropology, numismatics, toponymy, geography and trade route investigations have revealed evidence of the trading which forms the background to the St. Thomas tradition of Kerala. Maliankara was the headquarters of the Church of Malabar from the 1st century. (Malankara is cognate of Maliankara) and hence the church was known as the Malankara Church.
