Indian Christianity

HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA : M. M. NINAN
Synod of Nicaea in 325. (Nirappel, Rev. Dr. Antony (Syro-Malabar Catholic Diocese of Kanjirappally).
The Kerala Church. Changanacherry Kerala, India.).
AD 4th - 6th C
ca.4th-6th c. Severe persecution of Christians in Persia (Sassanid Empire).
AD 337 -379
The Persian Church faced several severe persecutions, notably during the reign of Shapur II (309–79),
from the Zoroastrian majority who accused it of Roman leanings. In 337 Shāpūr sent his forces across
the Tigris River, the uneasy frontier, to recover Armenia and Mesopotamia, which his predecessors had
lost to the Romans. Until 350 the conflict raged in northern Mesopotamia, with neither side a clear-cut
victor. Shortly after 337, Shāpūr took an important policy decision. Although the state religion of the
Sāsānian Empire was Mazdaism (Zoroastrianism), Christianity flourished within its boundaries. The
Roman emperor Constantine the Great had granted toleration to Christians in 313. With the subsequent
Christianization of the empire, Shāpūr, mistrustful of a potential force of a fifth column at home while he
was engaged abroad, ordered the persecution and forcible conversion of the Christians; this policy was
in force throughout his reign.
AD 340-360
The Nasranis were granted special rights and privileges by the edict Thazhekad Sasanam; the edict was
written on stone and provides proof of the early existence of St. Thomas Christians in Kerala.
AD 345
A small group of K'nanaim merchants travelled to the Jewish trade posts at Kodungallur in Kerala and
settled there; their descendants are today known in Kerala as Knanaya Nasranis (Saint Thomas
Christians); they were under the leadership of Thomas of Cana (Thomas of Kynai), with Bishop Joseph
of Edessa (Bp. Uraha Mar Yausef), four priests, several deacons, and 72 Syro-Aramaic Jewish families
who migrated from Edessa (about 400 people).
AD 354
Theophilos the Indian was sent by Emperor Constantius II on a mission to south Asia via Arabia, where
he is said to have converted the Himyarites and built three churches in southwest Arabia; he is also said
to have found Christians in India, along the Malabar Coast, as recorded by the Anomoean (Arian) Church
historian Philostorgius.
AD 363
St. Ephrem the Syrian at Edessa, writes about St. Thomas as the Apostle of India.
AD 379-402
Continuation of the Great Persecution of the Persian church.
64