It was St. Thomas the apostle who introduced Christianity to Kerala in 52 AD. He is said to have converted many people and built seven churches along the coast, each identified with a miracle he performed. In 345 AD Thomas Cana (Knaithomman), a Syrian merchant arrived at Cranganore. The King of Malabar granted him land and other such privileges such as a title, status and property. Inscriptions on copper plates and palm leaves record the title and gifts bestowed on Thomas. He expressed his wish to preach Christianity and immediately set about his task, converting many families. Rites and practices exercised by these Christians were in compliance with the Syrian Church and Syriac was the language adopted for their services. They preserved these practices by continual association with their roots (although this was not always located in Syria). In the 9th century the local Christian community was augmented by the arrival of large numbers of Christians from Syria. This served to bolster the established practices.
Francis Xavier arrived in 1542 and administered to the costal Christians, many of whom had been converted earlier by the Portuguese. These mainly lower-caste people were hopeful that their inclusion in a Christian community might liberate them from the hardship of their caste status as well as afford them some protection their new masters, the Portuguese. Francis Xavier is reputed to have worked assiduously to support and assist them.
The Portuguese instigated harsh policies to eradicate what they perceived to be heathen customs. They were determined to exercise complete authority over the local Christian community and they endeavored to implement Latin services in place of the former Syriac ones. Such impositions were strongly opposed by the Syrian Christians. With Latinization, their cherished services, such as weddings, funerals and christenings, were conducted in a unfamiliar language and became distant and without meaning.
When, in 1653, the Portuguese detained the Christians chosen bishop from Antioch, public demonstrations resulted. Christians took the Oath of the Koonan Kurisu (Leaning Cross), where they declared that the Portuguese priests where not their spiritual leaders. They then rebuffed the Portuguese action by consecrating their chosen clergyman as their bishop. This created a schism in the Christian community and the Christian Syrian Church became an autonomous organization with no links to Rome. But the schism did not simply operate between two groups. At times, their own group ostracized members of one group sympathetic to the other and seeking reconciliation, such misunderstandings created deep divisions within the Christian community.
In 1662, after a papal delegation visited Malabar,
many of the Syrian Christians reunited under Rome supremacy. Others, however,
joined the Syrian Jacobite Church and some of this community later
became members of the Anglican community. Others, wishing to conduct their
services in Malayalam, broke away to form the Marthoma Syrian Church.
From the late 18th century requests were made to Rome for the appointment of a local bishop in the hope that this might heal the rift. But Rome was undecided. In 1930 the matter was settled to some extent with the formation of the Syro-Malankara Church, which enabled the Syrian Christians and Latin Christians to follow their own practices under the jurisdiction of Rome.
With the Arrival of the British, the Anglican Church was established.