- A plaque commemorating Mar Severios, the Patriarch of Antioch from 512 to 538.
My ancestral church in Vayalathala is called Mar Severios Sleeba Valiyapally. It was founded in the 1910s and rests atop a mountain looking over the town of Vayalathala. It belongs to the Malankara Orthodox tradition. The church was named after Mar Severios, the Patriarch of Antioch in the sixth century, and is the only Church in Kerala dedicated to this particular saint. According to the plaque, Mar Severios is famous as he was supposedly the first saint to proclaim, without doubt, that Mary was the mother of God.
The church also has a cemetery, which is where most of my ancestors (on my dad's side) are buried. Both my grandparents are buried in the church grounds. There is also a grave of a member of the Pakalomattom family, which is one of the Seven main families from which tthe St Thomas tradition spread.
This church also belongs to the Orthodox tradition, which is a relatively new distinction. The Syrian Christian church underwent a split in the late 1800s, primarily into the Orthodox and Mar Thoma churches. The reasons for the split requires a brief explanation of Church history.
During the mid to late 1500s, the Catholic church, brought by Portugal to the Indian subcontinent, began to try and subjugate the Syrian tradition (called the Malankara Church). Portuguese influence in India started with the arrival of Vasco da Gama to Calicut in 1498. They had a reputation for violence, burning down ships of Muslim pilgrims and engaging in sustained conflict against the forces of the Zamorin of Calicut, Egypt and then the Ottomans. Their brand of Catholicism was far more militant, and at odds with the traditions in Kerala. They also placed emphasis on the Catholic tradition which angered a lot of Malankara Chistians.
During the mid 1600s, the Malankara community had enough and took the 'Coonan Cross oath,' where they decided to remain independent from the Catholic church and strengthen their own tradition.
Similar attempts were made by the Anglican church between 1810 and 1836, where they sought to reform and change the Malankara church. A similar declaration proceeded, where in Mavelikarra they decided to reaffirm the local tradition. However, splits occurred in the church: first with a section turning to the Anglican church, and another establishing a similar tradition to the Malankara church but with undertaking reform. The two major churches that emerged from this split were the Malankara Orthodox Church and the Mar Thoma church.
There aren't any major differences, except for the length and structure of the Holy Communion, and some differences in terms of the reverence given to Mother Mary. No conflict exists within the groups, and intermarriage is extremely common, with members of the same family belonging to both churches. My parents and their families belong to both traditions which is perceived as normal in today's climate.
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