Pakalomattam family
The Pakalomattam family is an ancient Marthoma Nasrani (Syrian Orthodox Christian) family in Kerala, India. According to the 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 Pakalomattan family for generations.[2]
History
The Pakalomattam family originated from
Traditionally it had been the privilege of the eldest priest belonging to Pakalomattam to be the Archdeacon of the Saint Thomas Christians.[4] The position of Archdeacon is the highest clerical rank in the Church of the East after a bishop.[5] 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.[5] 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.[5] 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).[5]
The legend
See also
References
- ^ Centenary Supplement of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Being a Selection of Papers Read to the Society During the Celebrations of July, 1923. Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. 1923. p. 218.
- ISBN 9781351123846.
- ^ "Pakalomattom Family History".
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(help) - ISBN 9781317482116.
- ^ Istvan Perczel. "The Saint Thomas Christians in India from 52 to 1687 AD". www.srite.de. Archived from the originalon 15 February 2009.
- ^ George Menachery and Edward René Hambye - The St. Thomas Christian Encyclopedia of India, Volume 2
- ^ Germann, Wilhelm (1877). Die Kirche der Thomaschristen. C. Bertelsmann. pp. 457–458.
http://pakalomattamfamily.org/history/ https://www.nasrani.net/2020/07/15/debate-on-the-apostolate-of-st-thomas-in-kerala-a-response/