Palayoor: Difference between revisions

'''Palayoor''' is famous for its [[Christianity|Christian]] church, [[St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, Palayur|St. Thomas Church]] which is founded by [[Thomas the Apostle|St. Thomas the Apostle]] in 52&nbsp;AD. It is the first Christian Church in India. St. Thomas, the Apostle, arrived in 50&nbsp;AD at Crangannur {now Kodungallur} with Jewish merchants for the propagation of Christ's message and through the sea route reached Palayoor in 52&nbsp;AD and built the Church here. Palayoor also had an ancient [[Jewish]] settlement known as the Jews' Hill. Palayoor was connected from the first century onwards even up to this day to other ancient trade centres of Kerala, especially Muziris, by rivers and backwaters. The river and backwater system in the erstwhile Cochin State opens out into the sea at Chettuwaye, Cranganur and Cochin with the three Thomas churches at Palayoor, Kodungallur, and Parur connected together by this system. People from far off lands have found their way to Kerala and to Palayoor since ancient times. The coast was familiar country to the Phoenicians, the Romans, the Arabs and the Chinese long before Vasco da Gama arrived in 1498.<ref>{{cite book |last= Whitehouse |first= Thomas |title=Lingerings of light in a dark land: Researches into the Syrian church of Malabar|date=1873 |publisher=William Brown and Co.|page=31-32 |url=https://books.google.co.in/books?id=Ie4CAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false |language=en |quote= Of palur, little can be said having any special interest. It was the most northern of the seven ancient churches, with Quilon as the most southern. The village at present is an unimportant place and lies off any main road, about a mile or so S.E . of Chowghaut. Gouvea narrates in his account of a visitation by Archbishop Menezes,that in order to bring the Proceedings of the Portuguese Archbishop and his synod at Udiamparur into odium, three of the leading men of place performed a farce or morality play in the church. One of the speakers impersonated St. Peter, another St. Thomas, and the third, who acted as umpire, St. Cyriac, to whom the church was then dedicated.}}</ref>