Book Review, History

Dear Admin: Thanks for making us aware of this …

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Comment posted ‘Jornada of Dom Alexis de Menezes: A Portuguese account of the Sixteenth century Malabar’ edited by Dr. Pius Malekandathil by John Mathew.

Dear Admin:

Thanks for making us aware of this book—I wonder how many other such documents of the Portuguese are still lying around waiting to be translated!

I think/hope this would really help bolster the histories of the various Churches throughout Kerala—that is, so many of our Churches claim to have been established in the 1st/4th/9th/11th/13th etc centuries, with very little evidence to support the claims. Does Menezes’ accounts of these Churches shed any light on their history?

For example, what does he have to say about the Church at Thevallakara? Was there a tomb over there that was venerated (Mar Abo) by our people? Our how about the Church in Kallada: did it have the same aura of antiquity that it has now? Any juicy details about Niranam, Cheppad, Karthikapally, Chengannur? (Sorry for the southern bias …!).

And here I was thinking those horrid accounts by the British low-Church Protestants (Whitehouse, and his ilk) were all we had!

Please Admin, if you have some details you could shed on these old Parishes, I would love to hear about them!