Indian Christianity

HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA : M. M. NINAN
Duarte Pacheco Pereira, first commander of Fort Manuel of Cochin
Profiting from the rivalry between the ruler of Kochi and the Zamorin of Calicut, the Portuguese were well
received and seen as allies, getting a permit to build a fort (Fort Manuel) and a trading post that were the
first European settlement in India. The Battle of Cochin ensued where a series of confrontations,
between March and July 1504, fought on land and sea, principally between the Portuguese garrison at
Cochin, allied to the Trimumpara Raja, and the armies of the Zamorin of Calicut and vassal Malabari
states.
Profiting from the rivalry between the ruler of Kochi and the Zamorin of Calicut, the Portuguese were well
received and seen as allies, getting a permit to build a fort (Fort Manuel) and a trading post that were the
first European settlement in India. In 1505 King Manuel I of Portugal appointed Francisco de Almeida first
Viceroy of Portuguese India, establishing the Portuguese government in the east. That year the
Portuguese conquered Kannur where they founded St. Angelo Fort. Lourenço de Almeida arrived in
Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka), where he discovered the source of cinnamon. In 1509, the Portuguese won
the sea Battle of Diu against the combined forces of the Ottoman Sultan Beyazid II, Sultan of Gujarat,
Mamlûk Sultan of Cairo, Zamorin of Kozhikode, Venetian Republic, and Ragusan Republic (Dubrovnik). .
On June 12, 1514, Cochin and Goa became two prominent mission stations under the newly created
Diocese of Funchal in Madeira. In 1534, Pope Paul III by the Bull Quequem Reputamus, raised Funchal
as an archdiocese and Goa as its suffragan, deputing the whole of India under the diocese of Goa.
A second Battle of Diu in 1538 finally ended Ottoman ambitions in India and confirmed Portuguese
hegemony in the Indian Ocean.
In 1542 Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier arrived in Goa at the service of King John III of Portugal, in
charge of an Apostolic Nunciature. The Portuguese built the Pulicat fort in 1502, with the help of the
Vijayanagar ruler. There were Portuguese settlements in and around Mylapore. The Luz Church in
Mylapore, Madras (Chennai) was the first church that the Portuguese built in Madras in 1516. Later in
1522, the São Tomé church was built on the grave of Saint Thomas.
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