St. John Paul II Knanaya Catholic Mission, Sacramento

Sixteen centuries of an unbroken, endogamous Jewish-Christian community among the St. Thomas Christians of India.

1. AD 345

   Arrival at Cranganore

   The Knanaya Community — a Jewish-Christian people of Southern Mesopotamia — migrated to Cranganore (Kodungallur) on the Malabar Coast, led by the merchant Thomas of Cana (Knai Thomman) and Bishop Uraha Mar Joseph, with four priests and several deacons.

2. 72 Privileges

   Welcomed by the Chera Ruler

   Some 400 people of 72 families and seven clans received land and 72 royal privileges. They strengthened the Church of St. Thomas and preserved a distinct ethnic and ecclesial identity through endogamy, their own clergy and their own places of worship.

3. 1600 – 1896

   Ecclesial Recognition

   The Latin Bishops under the Portuguese Padroado and the Propaganda Fide preserved the distinction between Southists and Northists, with separate parishes and priests. After the Vicariates Apostolic of Kottayam and Trichur were erected in 1887, Msgr. Charles Lavigne, SJ appointed two pontifically privileged Vicars General — Msgr. Mathew Makil for the Southists and Msgr. Emmanuel Nidhiri for the Northists. In 1896 Mar Mathew Makil, a Southist, became the first Vicar Apostolic of Changanacherry.

4. 2003 – 2006

   Kottayam Raised to a Metropolitan See

   On December 23, 2003 Pope John Paul II decided the status quo (pro gente suddistica) of the Eparchy of Kottayam must be maintained. The Synod consented to its elevation in November 2004, and on June 3, 2005 the Metropolitan See was canonically erected with Mar Kuriakose Kunnacherry as its first Metropolitan. Mar Mathew Moolakkatt took over on January 14, 2006.

5. Today

   A Community Preserved

   Accacio Cardinal Coussa interpreted that, in matters such as determining the proper parish priest to bless marriages, the distinction between Northists and Southists carries the same canonical force as that between two sui iuris Churches — confirming the special individuality of this community across sixteen centuries.