Person · Syriac Christian merchant
Thomas of Cana
Also known as Knai Thoma, K'nāi Thoma, Knāi Thoma, Tomman Kinān, K'nānāya Thoma, Quinai Thoma
A Syriac Christian merchant who, in the community's tradition, landed at Kodungallur with seventy-two families and clergy from Persian Mesopotamia, and received a Chera copper-plate grant of rights for them and for all the Christians of the coast. Scholars read his arrival as a real migration of East Syriac Christians, the moment the Kerala church was tied to the Church of the East. The Knanaya, or Southists, trace their descent to his party; the Northists to the apostle's converts.
- Function
- Travel & migration
- Confidence
- Mixed / layered — Scholars accept a historical East Syriac migration behind the story; the person, his date and his lost plates rest on tradition and later reports.
Worth knowing
His copper plates survived in Kerala until the seventeenth century and are now lost. In 1578 the missionary Francisco Dionysio recorded that the church of St Thomas he had built at Kodungallur, on land from the king, was by then in Portuguese hands.
His date is uncertain: the community's tradition says 345 CE and colonial reports give dates as late as 811. J. S. Assemani's identification of him with a ninth-century bishop is rejected by Jacob Kollaparambil, and the meaning of 'Cana' is disputed.
Connections (3)
- Traditional linkKodungallur & Mar Thoma church
Thomas of Cana is said to have landed at Kodungallur, the Chera capital, with seventy-two families and clergy from Persian Mesopotamia, and his copper-plate grant gave the Christians land on which a church of St Thomas was built. The native Christians lived on the northern side of the town and his party on the southern, the origin of the Northist and Southist names. In 1578 the missionary Francisco Dionysio found that church, built on land the king gave, held by the Portuguese.
- TransmissionSaint Thomas Christians
The Knanaya or Southists, a subgroup of the Saint Thomas Christians, trace their descent to Thomas of Cana's party, while the Northists claim the apostle's converts. Scholars read his arrival as a real migration of East Syriac Christians and the moment the Kerala church was linked to the Church of the East, and the community's histories say it revived a church then without leaders. His copper plates, which raised the standing of all the Christians, were lost after the seventeenth century.
- AnalogueThomas the Apostle
Kerala's Christians remember two founding Thomases. The apostle, in tradition, converted the first families in the first century; Thomas of Cana, a Syriac merchant said to have arrived in 345 or later, brought settlers, clergy and royal privileges. Portuguese writers recorded the resulting division between Northists, who claim the apostle's converts, and Southists or Knanaya, who claim the merchant, and the Nasranis of Kodungallur venerated him too as a saint. The Syriac Orthodox patriarch canonised him in 1990.
Sources
Wikipedia, "Thomas of Cana" and "Saint Thomas Christians". Jacob Kollaparambil, The Babylonian Origin of the Southists among the St. Thomas Christians (1992); Stephen Neill, A History of Christianity in India (2004).
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