The 425th anniversary of the Udayamperoor Synod will be celebrated on August 22.

The 425th-anniversary celebration of the Udayamperoor Synod, a pivotal event in the history of the Church in Kerala, will take place at the Pastoral Orientation Centre (POC) in Kochi. Organized by the Kerala Region Latin Catholic Council’s (KRLCC) Heritage Commission in collaboration with the Archdiocese of Verapoly, the event marks a significant moment in the region's religious history. The Synod, also known as the Synod of Diamper, occurred in 1599 in Udayamperoor near Kochi, where 813 participants, including 660 laypeople and 153 priests from over 100 churches in Kerala, gathered. Led by Dom Aleixo de Menezes, the Portuguese Archbishop of Goa, the Synod brought the ancient Nasrani Christians of Kerala, who trace their origins to St. Thomas the Apostle, under the Roman Catholic Church’s authority. It involved issuing decrees that aimed to align the Nasrani Christians' practices with the Roman Rite, moving them away from their longstanding traditions tied to the Church of the East. This shift also placed them under Papal jurisdiction, which many historians and critics view as a forced imposition of Roman Catholicism on a community that had followed the East Syriac liturgy for over a millennium.

Fr Yesudas Pazhampilly, director of PRD at the Archdiocese of Verapoly, explained that the Synod took place during a time when social injustices like the caste system and untouchability were widespread in Kerala. He noted that the Synod was held under Pope Clement VIII’s authority and led by Archbishop Menezes. The Synod resulted in 200 decrees, initially issued in Portuguese and later translated into Malayalam. One significant proclamation from the Synod was the declaration that all men are equal, irrespective of caste.

However, some Church historians have a different perspective. Kurian Thomas, a historian, noted that the Portuguese arrived in India in 1498 and, upon encountering a native Christian community in Kerala, viewed them as an obstacle to their mission of spreading Roman Catholicism. He argues that the Synod was only possible due to the political power of Archbishop Menezes, who was also the Governor of Goa. Thomas also highlighted that the presence of laypeople at the Synod, which should have invalidated the proceedings according to Roman Catholic canon law, was disregarded.

The discontent arising from the Synod’s reforms eventually led to the Coonan Cross Oath in 1653, where a group of Nasrani Christians in Mattancherry vowed to resist the Jesuits and the Pope’s authority. This event led to a split within the community, with one faction remaining loyal to Rome (Pazhaya Kuttukar) and the other, under Archdeacon Thomas, forming the Jacobite Church with Angamaly as its headquarters.