Pakalomattam family
Ancient Indian ecclesiastical family
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Pakalomattam family is an ancient Saint Thomas Christians family in Kerala, India. According to an article written by P. J. Thomas, Parakunnel, a member of the Parakkunnel-Pakalomattom family, in Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, the family "solely supplied bishops and archdeacons to the Church in India till the beginning of the nineteenth century."[1] The position of Archdeacon of All India (sometimes given as Arkkadiyakon of all India), who oversaw the whole Christian church in India, was with very few exceptions filled by a member of the Pakalomattam family for generations.[2]
| Pakalomattam family പാകലോമറ്റം കുടുംബം | |
|---|---|
| Country | India |
| Place of origin | Palayoor, Kerala (AD 52) |
| Founded | AD 52 |
| Founder | Converted by Thomas the Apostle |
| Titles | Archdeacon of All India, Malankara Metropolitan, King of Villarvattom, Archbishop of Cranganore |
| Heirlooms | Pakalomattam Tharavadu, Kuravilangad |
Modern members of the family have served in prominent roles beyond ecclesiastical office, including in government and international affairs.[3]
History
It is claimed that the Pakalomattam family originated from Brahmins,[4] who were brought into the Christian faith by Saint Thomas the Apostle in AD 52. The Pakalomattam family traditionally held the historical offices of Arkkadiyakon of all India, who headed the Marthoma Nasranis in Kerala and later Malankara Metropolitan (from AD 1653 until AD 1816) which headed the Puthenkoor faction of Marthoma Nasranis. The Pakalomattam Tharavad was initially at Palayoor, but later in 4th Century they moved to Kuravilangad. Many branches of Pakalomattam later moved to different parts of Kerala, starting from 17th century, due to the division created between Puthenkoor and Pazhayakoor.
Traditionally it had been the privilege of the eldest priest belonging to Pakalomattam to be the Archdeacon of the Saint Thomas Christians.[5] The position of Archdeacon is the highest clerical rank in the Church of the East after a bishop.[6] He is the head of all the clerics belonging to a diocese and he is incharge of the cathedral church and represents the will of the bishop in his absence.[6] Since India was an exterior province of the Church of the East and since the Patriarch reserved for himself the right to send Metropolitans to India, the effective ecclesiastical authority vested on the native Archdeacon.[6] Archdeaconate was not just an ecclesiastical institution, but a socio-political and ethno-religious, princely authority, that represented the integrity of the Christian community of Hendo (India).[6]
The legend
Palayoor was one of the places near the port of Muziris, where St. Thomas established a church. The place is referred to as Paloor in old documents. At that time, according to tradition, Palayoor had a Brahmin village of families with the strength of 64 adults. In one of the temple ponds in Palayoor, St. Thomas performed a miracle, where the Brahmins of the village were performing a Vedic ritual called Tharpanam which means "The offering which satisfies" in which they perform a ritual of the Sun by the symbolic submission of water in their palms along with Vedic recitation. St. Thomas was attracted to the ritual and queried about the act and challenged the logic of their submission, since the water that was thrown above was not accepted, and returned to earth. St. Thomas used this opportunity to present his subject before the present Brahmin community.
St. Thomas threw water in the name of Jesus and it stood still in the air and glittered like a diamond. By this experience, many Brahmins accepted Christianity while the other Brahmins cursed and left the place with their families, saying that they would do their rituals from then on at Vembanattu.[7][8]
Role in the Synod of Diamper
The Pakalomattam family played a central role in the events surrounding the Synod of Diamper of 1599, which attempted to bring the ancient Saint Thomas Christians of Kerala under the authority of the Portuguese Padroado and the Catholic Church.
Jacob of Muttuchira, Archdeacon of the Saint Thomas Christians in the years preceding the Synod, resisted Portuguese attempts at Latinisation throughout his archdeaconate. His resistance was sufficiently effective that the Portuguese were compelled to allow Bishop Abraham of Angamaly to govern the Malabar Christians until Abraham's death in 1597. Jacob died in 1596 — excommunicated by the Archbishop of Goa but unbowed.[9]
Following Jacob, Archdeacon George of the Cross (also of the Pakalomattam family) held the archdeaconate during the Synod itself. The Archbishop Menezes threatened to replace him with another Pakalomattam nephew unless he submitted. George ultimately gave way under coercion; however, the letter he subsequently sent to the Pope is noted by historians as not representing his genuine sentiments, as "by that time he was completely at the mercy of the Portuguese."[10]
George continued to resist until his death around 1634–1637.
The definitive Pakalomattam response to the Synod of Diamper came in 1653, when Archdeacon Thomas — subsequently known as Mar Thoma I — led the Coonan Cross Oath at Mattancherry, in which the Saint Thomas Christian community collectively swore to reject Portuguese ecclesiastical authority. Thomas was subsequently consecrated as the first native Malankara Metropolitan, founding the independent Malankara Church. The Portuguese military and the Carmelite missionaries attempted to capture him but he escaped, and continued to exercise episcopal authority until his death in 1670.[11][12]
The Pakalomattam family thus provided the principal leadership of resistance to the Synod of Diamper across three successive generations — from Jacob of Muttuchira's pre-Synod defiance, through George of the Cross's coerced participation, to Mar Thoma I's founding of an independent church — a period spanning nearly a century of confrontation with Portuguese colonial ecclesiastical authority.[13]
Notable Pakalomattam Family Members
- Thoma I - (died c. 1450) — Feudal Christian monarch of Villarvattom, a vassal fiefdom of the Kingdom of Cochin, and the last king of the Villarvattom dynasty.
- Giwargis of Christ (died c. 1585) — Archdeacon of the Saint Thomas Christians, a Biblical scholar and master of the Syriac language.
- Jacob of Muttuchira - (died 1596) — Archdeacon of the Saint Thomas Christians who resisted the Latinising efforts of the Portuguese Padroado throughout his archdeaconate, refusing to submit even after being excommunicated by the Archbishop of Goa.
- Palliveettil Chandy (1615–1687) — The first native Indian bishop in the history of the Catholic Church. Of the Parambil branch of the Pakalomattam family at Muttuchira, he served as Archbishop of Cranganore from 1663 to 1687. A cousin of Mar Thoma I, the two men simultaneously led the opposing factions of the Saint Thomas Christian community following the Coonan Cross Oath of 1653.[14][15]
- Giwargis of the Cross (died c. 1634–1637) — Archdeacon of the Saint Thomas Christians who led the Indian Church through the Synod of Diamper (1599), resisting Portuguese ecclesiastical authority for decades despite repeated excommunication, and who is believed to be buried at the Pakalomattam Tharavadu in Kuravilangad.[16]
- Thoma of Villarvattom - (c. 1620–1670) — The last Archdeacon of the undivided Saint Thomas Christians and the first native-born Malankara Metropolitan, who led the Coonan Cross Oath in 1653 and founded the independent Malankara Church.
- P. J. Thomas, Parakunnel - (1895–1965) — Independent India's first economic advisor, who studied at Balliol College, Oxford, and served as a signatory of both the Bretton Woods Agreement and the United Nations Charter in 1945.[17]
- Cherian Philip (born 1954) — Indian politician, political historian and author of the Kadavana branch of the Pakalomattam family, who served as Chairman of the Kerala Tourism Development Corporation and Secretary of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee.[18]