Mar Sabrisho and Mar Piruz, Nasrani History

Back to Mar Abo: As some may know, Kollam …

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Comment posted Arrival of Mar Sabrisho and Mar Piruz, Earliest Reports, Copper Plates, Katheeshangal,Christians & Churches at Quilon by John Mathew.

Back to Mar Abo:

As some may know, Kollam has many families claiming to descend from the immigrants who came along with Mar Abo (Mar Sabor?) and Mar Aphroth. In Thevelakkara in particular there is a family (with the title Tharackan) that strongly maintains this; they are (historically) the priestly family of the Marth Mariam Church in Thevelakarra (the Church associated with Mar Abo, that contains his tomb).

I was talking to one descendant of this family, and he mentioned a family tradition that ascribed the name “Nisan Timotheos” to Mar Abo. I got to thinking and perhaps this is a confusion of the 8/9th century patriarch Timothy who may have reigned during the era of the Mar Sabor/Abo Mar Aphroth immigration.

Just putting this out there in case it helps jog anyone’s memory.

By the way, I visited the Church a few months ago; I couldn’t go inside as it was closed, but I went to the outdoor shrine of Mar Abo. It was tiled up with modern tile due to a renovation, but there was one exposed area that was not tiled. And on the older brick/rock that was exposed you could clearly see an equilateral cross engraved on the rock. The cross is a “Cross fleury” type (google this for more info), like our Persian Crosses but without the dove, base, etc.; just a cross.

Unfortunately there was no priest present that I could talk to to understand a bit more about this.

Has anyone seen similar inscribed crosses on Kerala Churches? This was about 50 cm above ground level, and less that 10 cm by 10 cm in size.