Dear Sujith: No reason for doubt: Goa is one …

Comment posted Mission of Pantaenus in India and Saint Bartholomew, the Apostle in India by John Mathew.

Dear Sujith:

No reason for doubt: Goa is one of those places were a Persian/Pahlavi Cross was discovered–which means that a Syriac Church definitely existed there at one point in time. In addition to Kalyan, Patna, Malabar and Mylapore, Goa also appears on lists that discuss the expansion of East Syriac Christianity into India—apparently Nestorianism (to use the term lightly) was dispersed throughout India in ancient times.

And, although I despise “oral traditions” (at least w.r.t. history) for completeness I’ll add that if you search on NSC you’ll find references to a Goan tradition of Syriac-sounding names, etc. I forget exactly where this is located … perhaps on the NSC page about the Persian Crosses.

But yes. I agree that Mor Julius Alvares didn’t seem to be connected with the pre-Portuguese Syriac Church of Goa… I haven’t seen to much biographical info on Mor Julius, but I think I saw it reported somewhere that he was a Brahmin convert to Christianity. Again, I can’t vouch for this info … I’m still looking for corroboration.

I believe the Qurbono was translated from Syriac into Latin for this group.

Related NSC Network Articles

• Letters of St. Thomas the Apostle to Edessa from India
• ‘East of the Euphrates- Early Christianity in Asia’ by T.V. Philip
• ‘Origin of Christianity in India’ by Dr.Benedict Vadakkekara
• “Christianity in India- a History in ecumenical perspective” by HC Perumalil and ER Hambye
• Early references about the Apostolate of Saint Thomas in India, Records about the Indian tradition, Saint Thomas Christians & Statements by Indian Statesmen
• ‘The St. Thomas Christian Encyclopedia of India’- Volume I -Prof. George Menachery
• ‘The Indian Christians of St. Thomas’ by Dr. Leslie Brown

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