mission · 345 · Kodungallur
By the Knanaya tradition, in 345 the merchant Thomas of Cana led seventy-two Syrian Christian families with clergy from Mesopotamia to Cranganore, where the local Thomas Christians received them. Whatever its date and detail, the migration stands for a real bond: from late antiquity the Malabar church drew its bishops and its books from the Church of the East.
Malabar gains families, clergy and a colony — knit to the Syriac east ever after.