﻿ox THE COAST OF MALABAR. 363 



The Portuguese were fond of bestowing upoit 

 their, the name of .SV. 'J home Christ'ians, thougli tlii.s 

 appeUation does not ap])tar to have been, or now to 

 be, very common amongst themselves. It originate^ 

 probably from the chief w lio settled the first colony 

 of Syrians- on the coast, and who was, according to 

 their tradition, their first bishop and founder of their- 

 religion in tliese countries, and whose name was 

 Mar Thome'. This is corroborated by the curious- 

 circumstance of their giving the name of Ma it; 

 Thome' to every ecclesiastical chief or bishop of 

 theirs, although his real name be Joseph or Abra- 

 ham, not improbably in compliment to their first 

 bishop and founder, for whom thev ha\e still a reli- 

 gious veneration. His arrival and settlement on the 

 coast, may perhaps on a future period be ascertained, 

 with historical accuracy, to have taken place during- 

 the violent persecution of the sect of NEsroRius, 

 under Theodosius the Second, or some time> after. 



But the bigoted Portuguese missionaries laid- 

 hold of this name to renew the story of the arrival 

 and martyrdom of St Thomas the Apostle in Indiay 

 who they pretended had converted a great number 

 of idolaters on the covist of Malabar, and afterwards: 

 on the other side of India, as far as Malliapoor, now 

 ♦S"^, Tho?ni, v/here he suffered martyrdom : and as- 

 vestiges of Christianity were at the same period dis- 

 covered in C^f/2«, they made the same Apostle preach- 

 the Gospel in that remote region, and some carried, 

 the absnrdity so far as to make him pass, some way- 

 or other, over to the Brasils*. The Malabar Qhris- 

 tians, they say, had a long time contiuued without^ 

 ecclesiastical chiefs, or communication with the rest^ 

 of the C/hristian world, till they found means to prO". 

 cure bishops from Mosul in Syria, who unfortu-. 



nately 



* Vide Historia ecclesise Malab. earn Diamperitano Synodp> 

 page 343, 



