CONTACTS BETWEEN CHRISTIANS WESTERN AND EASTERN

The Thomas Christians had lived for centuries in their small world between the mountains and the sea, in almost total isolation from the rest of Christendom. Only occasionally did some sounds reach them from that outer and unknown world and disturb for a moment the stillness of their existence. Such contacts as came their way were mainly with the patriarchate of Babylon, from which their episcopal succession was maintained, somewhat irregularly, and as our sources suggest with considerable intervals during which there was no bishop in the Serra. So, when the great ships of a Western power arrived in the harbour of Cochin, there was not unnaturally great jubilation among the local Christians.

During the second voyage of Vasco da Gama formal contact was made between the Eastern and the Western Christians. On 19 November 1502 a number of Christians of distinguished appearance came to Cochin from Mangalor, greeted da Gama in the name of their king, presented him with a ‘rod of justice’, a painted staff red in colour, both ends plated in silver with three bells of silver at each end, and assured him that from that time they would not administer justice or pronounce judgement against any malefactor except in the name of the king of Portugal. They claimed to represent a population of 30,000 adults, and expressed a hope that the king of Portugal would build a fort in their country, from which he could control the entire neighbourhood.