Malankara Rite

The Malankara Rite is the form of the West Syriac liturgical rite practiced by several churches of the Saint Thomas Christian community in Kerala, India. West Syriac liturgy was brought to India by the Syriac Orthodox Bishop of Jerusalem, Gregorios Abdal Jaleel, in 1665; in the following decades the Malankara Rite emerged as the liturgy of the Malankara Church, one of the two churches that evolved from the split in the Saint Thomas Christian community in the 17th century. Today it is practiced by the various churches that descend from the Malankara Church, namely the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church, the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (Indian Orthodox Church), the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church, and the Malabar Independent Syrian Church.

Among these, the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church, the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church and the Malabar Independent Syrian Church preserve the traditional West Syriac liturgy, while the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church follows a reformed liturgical tradition shaped partly by Anglican influences in the 19th century.

History

The West Syriac Rite developed out of the ancient Antiochene Rite, emerging in the 5th and 6th century with the adoption of Syriac, rather than Greek, as the liturgical language of the non-Chalcedonian Patriarchate of Antioch. The liturgy was further revised and expanded over the centuries as the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch emerged as a fully distinct church, reaching its "classical" form in the 12th century under Patriarch Michael the Syrian.

West Syriac liturgy was first introduced to India by the mission of Gregorios Abdal Jaleel, the Syriac Orthodox Bishop of Jerusalem, who arrived in 1665. Historically, not wanting to accept the historical reality of Syrian migration, which happened in 345, under the leadership of Bishop Joseph and the trader Thomas of Canna, a group of Indian Christians in the Church of the East accepted Nestorianism, centred in Persia, practiced a variant of the East Syriac Rite that is known as the Malabar Rite. However, a decline in communications between the Patriarchate of Antioch (which is the oldest and which claims paternal succession) and India led the Saint Thomas Christians to attempt to establish relations with other churches. As early as 1491, the Archdeacon of Malabar sent envoys to the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch as part of an effort to receive a bishop for his bishopless province.