Place · Syrian Christian church · India
Kottakavu, Ernakulam
Also known as Ernakulam, Kottakavu, Kottakavu (N. Paravur), St Thomas' Kottakavu
The Kottakavu Mar Thoma Church at North Paravur in Ernakulam district, Kerala — one of the seven-and-a-half churches (Ezhara Palli) that Saint Thomas is said to have founded in Kerala in 52 CE in the apostolic tradition of the Thomas Christians. The Kottakavu site is identified by Thomas Christian tradition as one of the first Christian communities established on the Malabar Coast. The current church structure is 17-century Portuguese rebuild on much older foundations; the 1757 Jacobite-Syrian faction split affected the parish community. The Kottakavu church was damaged in Tipu Sultan's 1788 Malabar invasion but was reconstructed. The modern Kottakavu church (expanded 1964) is managed by the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. The adjacent Kottakavu Christian cemetery preserves 17-century Portuguese tombstones. The seven Thomas-tradition churches form a geographical pilgrimage circuit.
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 10.130, 76.220
Connections (3)
- Companion in the same setPalayoor
Kottakāvu on the Periyar and Palayoor near the Thrissur coast are two of the seven-and-a-half churches, and both carry the granite crosses that Kerala Christians cut long before any European arrived. Several of these Persian crosses have Pahlavi inscriptions around them, which points the church's affiliation at Mesopotamia and the East Syrian patriarchate rather than at Rome. They are the oldest physical evidence of Christianity in India, and they were made by masons who also worked on Hindu temples.
- Site adjacencyRajarajeshwari, Ernakulam
Rajarajeshwari and Kottakavu are both sacred sites in Ernakulam district and share the city of Ernakulam as their urban context, but neither is physically inside the other; they belong beside each other in Ernakulam's religious landscape rather than one within the other.
- Companion in the same setMalayattoor
Malayattoor and Kottakavu together belong to the Ezhara Palli (seven-and-a-half churches) network that Thomas Christian tradition dates to the apostle Thomas's Kerala mission of 52-72 CE. The Malayattoor hilltop shrine (Vatican International Shrine, 2004) and the Kottakavu riverside shrine at North Paravur are both among the seven original churches claimed by the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church. The Malayattoor Perunal pilgrimage each Easter draws over 1 million pilgrims across the Ezhara Palli circuit.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Ernakulam”. Kerala church records; Susan Bayly, Saints, Goddesses and Kings (1989).
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