The Archdiocese of Changanacherry

The Archdiocese of Changanacherry is one of the first two Vicariates and the second Metropolitan Archdiocese of the Syro-Malabar Church, after the establishment of the Syro-Malabar hierarchy which was the prelude to the restoration of the identity of the Church in 1992 as sui iuris Church.Pope Leo XIII of happy memory by his Bull Quod Jam Pridem dated May 20, 1887 established two Vicariates Apostolic - Kottayam and Thrissur - exclusively for the Syro-Malabarians and Dr. Charles Lavigne and Dr. Adolph Medlycott respectively were appointed the Vicars Apostolic.

St.Thomas

Thomas, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ. This disciple is also called Didy-mos (John 14:5; 21:2). Metaphysical meaning: Thomas is the disciple of Jesus Christ who represents the understanding faculty in man. Understanding and will function, or should function, in unison; each has its center of activity in the front brain, the forehead.

Among the disciples of Jesus, Thomas stood for the head, representing reason and intellectual perception. Jesus did not ignore Thomas's demand for physical evidence of His identity, but respected it. He convinced Thomas by corporeal evidence that there had been a body resurrection and that it was not a ghost body that he saw, but the same body that had been crucified, as was evidenced by the wounds that Thomas saw and felt.

In John 14:5 Thomas represents reason functioning in the realm of sense, seeking to discern the things of Spirit through outer signs. The truth contained in Jesus' answer to Thomas, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by me," is that the I AM in man, or the Christ, is the open door to the kingdom of God.