The Saint Thomas Christians, also called Syrian Christians of India, Marthoma Suriyani Nasrani, Malankara Nasrani, or Nasrani Mappila, are an ethno-religious community of Indian Christians in the state of Kerala, who, for the most part, employ the Eastern and Western liturgical rites of Syriac Christianity. They trace their origins to the evangelistic activity of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century. The Saint Thomas Christians had been historically a part of the hierarchy of the Church of the East but are now divided into several different Eastern Catholic, Oriental Orthodox, Protestant, and independent bodies, each with their own liturgies and traditions. They are Malayalis and their mother tongue is Malayalam, which is a Dravidian language. Nasrani or Nazarene is a Syriac term for Christians, who were among the first converts to Christianity in the Near East.
Mar Thoma Cross
Icon of Mar Knai Thoma the Merchant
Tharisapalli Copper plate grant (9th century) – One of the reliable documentary evidences of the privileges and influence that Saint Thomas Christians enjoyed in early Malabar. The document contains signatures of the witnesses in Pahlavi, Kufic and Hebrew scripts. It is the oldest documentary evidence from India that attest the presence of a Persian Christian community in South India.
The first Syrian–Anglican Cattanars in 1836
Christianity is India's third-largest religion with about 26 million adherents, making up 2.3 percent of the population as of the 2011 census. The written records of Saint Thomas Christians mention that Christianity was introduced to the Indian subcontinent by Thomas the Apostle, who sailed to the Malabar region in 52 AD.
Saint Thomas Christian cross from the 9th century Kadamattom Church
Saint Thomas Christians or Syrian Christians of ancient days from an old painting.
Mar Thoma Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, in Muziris present-day Kodungaloor, is believed to be the first Christian church built in India, circa 52 A. D.
Stained glass window of Saint Thomas the Apostle, the traditional founder of Indian Christianity, in his namesake St. Thomas CNI church, the 300 year old Cathedral of Mumbai