St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Church, Palayur
building in India
Palayur Mar Thoma Major Archiepiscopal Church, is located at Palayur (historically known as Palur), in Thrissur district in Kerala on the west coast of India. According to Saint Thomas Christian tradition, the Syrian church is believed to be established in 52 AD by St Thomas, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ. Saint Thomas performed the first baptism in India here, therefore this church is called an Apostolic Church credited to the apostolate of St. Thomas, who preached and also introduced Christianity to the people here. It is part of the Ēḻarappaḷḷikaḷ (seven major churches) that he established in India, the others being at Cranganore, Kokkamangalam, Kottakkavu, Kollam, Niranam, Chayal (Nilackal). The original small church structure has been retained at the original site. But substantial improvements around it were carried out during the 17th century by Giacomo Fenicio as necessary, without sacrificing the main sanctity of the place. Currently the Archpriest is Fr. Davis Kannampuzha. The Custodian of the church is the Metropolitan Archbishop of Thrissur, Mar Andrews Thazhath.
The public source identifies “St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Church, Palayur” as building in India. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Thomas, Syro-Malabar and Church.
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Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7591995.
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This entry incorporates text from “St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Church, Palayur” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.