Malankara Church in the context of "Malankara Metropolitan"

The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (MOSC) also known as the Indian Orthodox Church (IOC) or simply as the Malankara Church, is an autocephalous Oriental Orthodox church headquartered in Devalokam, near Kottayam, India. It serves India's Saint Thomas Christian (also known as Nasrani) population. According to tradition, these communities originated in the missions of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century (circa 52 AD). It employs the Malankara Rite, an Indian form of the West Syriac liturgical rite.

The MOSC descends from the Malankara Church and its affiliation with the Syriac Orthodox Church. However, between 1909 and 1912, a schism over the authority of the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch resulted in the dissolution of the unified Malankara Church and establishment of the overlapping and conflicting MOSC and Jacobite Syrian Christian Church (JSCC). Since 1912, the MOSC has maintained a catholicate, the Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan of Malankara Orthodox Church–presently Baselios Marthoma Mathews III–who is the primate of the church.

Mor Baselios Joseph (Syr: ܡܳܪܝ̱ ܒܰܣܺܝܠܺܝܳܘܣ ܝܰܘܣܶܦ݂; Mal: മോർ ബസേലിയോസ് ജോസഫ്; Born 10 November 1960) is the current and 81st Maphrian of Syriac Orthodox Church, 4th Catholicos of India and 26th Malankara Metropolitan of the Malankara Syriac Orthodox Church (Malankara Church). He also serves as the Metropolitan of the Kochi Diocese and Angamali Diocese.

He was elevated to the position of Catholicos on March 25, 2025 at St. Mary's Cathedral, Atchaneh, Lebanon in a service presided by Ignatius Aphrem II, the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch.

The Puthankoottukar (പുത്തൻകൂറ്റുകാർ, Puttankūṯṯukāṟ) are the faction of the Saint Thomas Christian community in South India which remained unwilling to restore ties with the Catholic Church and the Pope, after the united community broke the Portuguese Catholic hegemony through the Coonan Cross Oath in 1653. They instead chose to align with the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch and organised themselves as the 'Malankara Church' under Archdeacon Thoma Parambil, thereby developing a long standing relationship with the Syriac Orthodox Church since 1665.

The Jacobite Syrian Christian Church, also known as the Malankara Syriac Orthodox Church, Malankara Jacobite Syrian Church, or the Syriac Orthodox Church in India is an autonomous maphrianate of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch based in Kerala, India and a part of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. It is headed by the Catholicos of India, Mor Baselios Joseph, within the hierarchy of Syriac Orthodox Church.

According to tradition, it was founded by Saint Thomas the Apostle. It is currently the only church in Malankara that maintains the hierarchy of the Syriac Orthodox Church under the Holy See of Antioch. The church employs the West Syriac Rite's Liturgy of Saint James.

The Malankara Rite is the form of the West Syriac liturgical rite practiced by several churches of the Saint Thomas Christian community in Kerala, India. West Syriac liturgy was brought to India by the Syriac Orthodox Bishop of Jerusalem, Gregorios Abdal Jaleel, in 1665; in the following decades the Malankara Rite emerged as the liturgy of the Malankara Church, one of the two churches that evolved from the split in the Saint Thomas Christian community in the 17th century. Today it is practiced by the various churches that descend from the Malankara Church, namely the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church, the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (Indian Orthodox Church), the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church, and the Malabar Independent Syrian Church.

Among these, the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church, the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church and the Malabar Independent Syrian Church preserve the traditional West Syriac liturgy, while the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church follows a reformed liturgical tradition shaped partly by Anglican influences in the 19th century.

Baselios Marthoma Mathews III (born 12 February 1949) is the present Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan of the Malankara Church, serving as its primate. He was enthroned as the 22nd Malankara Metropolitan on 14 October 2021 and as the 9th Catholicos on 15 October 2021 at St. Peter and St. Paul's Church, Parumala, succeeding Baselios Marthoma Paulose II.