St. Mary's Jacobite Syrian Soonoro Cathedral, or Angamaly Cheriyapally, is an ancient Jacobite Syrian church located in Angamaly. Angamaly St Mary's Church is one of the prominent and ancient church of the Malankara Suriyani Church which had been established in the year AD 409. In the seventeenth century it was the residence of Archdeacon Thomas Parambil, who eventually got consecrated as bishop Mar Thoma I following the Coonan Cross Oath in 1653. It was initially the seat of the Archdeacon and later the Marthoma methrans, the local heads of the Malankara Church and hence held an important position in the church for several centuries.
Tradition says that Apostle St. Thomas arrived India in AD 52 and sowed the seeds of the Gospel and about 400 Syrian families immigrated in AD 345 under the leadership of the merchant Knayi Thoma to a town named Mahathevar patnam, near Muziris, the famous port of Kodungalloor. This was the first known centre of Christians in India. Jews who had engaged in trade with the coast of Malabar had inhabited the city much earlier and had rights to land and other privileges there. However Kodungalloor subsequently became less hospitable to Christians who took refuge in Angamaly. The local chieftain of "Mangattu", also referred to as "Mangattachan", graciously welcomed Christians into the area and granted them many privileges including the right to establish a church, a market and a town in 'Anke malee' (later Angamaly). The land for the Church in Angamaly was granted to the Syrian Christians next to his palace premises as a noble gesture. Thus the church was built with wood and thatched roofing in a location adjacent to the palace of the chieftain and in closer proximity to the palace. The number of Christians in Angamali swelled with further migrations, perhaps predominantly following the great flood in Periyar in 1341 that stilted the waters of the Muziris port. Later in 1523 the Muslim traders burnt down the Christian commercial establishments of Kodungallur and their church.
Following the fall of Christian Kodungallur, Angamaly came to be the foremost and most influential among the Saint Thomas Christian settlements, a fact that is apparent from the presence of three ancient churches in close vicinity. However, as noted by Melchior Carneiro, there was only one church back then in Angamali in 1550s and it was in the name of "Holy Virgin the Mother of Christ, the light and life".. After the Coonan Cross Oath, an unfortunate division happened among the Malankara Syrian Christian and this made an effect in Angamaly also. There were two faction in the Angamaly St Mary's Church and the both factions were conducting their religious practice in Angamaly St Mary's Church on alternate weeks. There were a chapel also erected adjacent to the church in the name of St George under the St Mary's Church to accommodate the faction which cannot conduct the liturgical practices in the St Mary's Church due to this alternate arrangement.Later the Pazhayakooru faction had been evicted from the Angamaly St Mary's Church by the Puthenkooru faction by paying to them reasonable compensation and by this way Puthenkooru faction could retain the ancient mother church of Angamaly in their possession.
Antonio de Gouvea, in his book Jornada do Arcebispo de Goa Dom Frey Aleixo de Meneses (1606), the travelogue of Alexis de Menezes the padroado Archbishop of Goa who convened the Synod of Diamper, gives an account of the churches in Angamaly:
Following the Synod of Diamper and Coonan Cross Oath, the community underwent a schism into Syrian Catholic and Jacobite factions. The churches of Angamaly were eventually partitioned between the two groups. Anquetil Du Perron, who visited Malabar in the eighteenth century, gives the following list and description of churches in Angamaly in the country of the Velutha Thavali ruler:
He then mentions a fourth church in the country of the Velutha Thavali, which is at Akaparambu and dedicated to Saint Gervasis, co-owned by Syrian Catholics and Jacobites.
Archdeacons of Pakalomattom family including Giwargis of Christ (George of Christ), Archdeacon John, Giwargis of the Cross (Archdeacon George of the Cross) and Parambil Thoma used the Angamaly Cheriyapally as their administrative headquarters. George of Christ was appointed as the Archdeacon in 1562 by Chaldean archbishop Joseph Sulaqa. George of Christ built this church following his election as the bishop of Palur in the diocesan assembly. This church is adorned by beautiful mural paintings, chandeliers and wooden carvings. In 1566, Chaldean Patriarch Abdisho IV Maron gave his accent to the election and appointed George of Christ as the bishop of Palur and coadjutor of the Archdiocese of Angamaly to ensure a successor to Metropolitan Abraham. However, the succession plan failed due to the death of the Archdeacon. Givargis of Christ and Parambil Thoma were entombed in this Church.
The whole parish defied the decrees of the Synod of Diamper in 1599 and firmly stood with the Archdeacon in resisting the Portuguese Padroado. The Catholic historian Bernard Thoma Alencherry records that the Syrian Christians in Mangad, Kochi, Purakad, and Thekkumkur who were loyal to Archdeacon George of Cross were threatened by local kings and Petty chieftains to attend the Synod of Diamper in 1599, as commanded by the Portuguese. The Raja of Cochin decreed that all assets of Syrian churches which abstain from the Synod of Diamper on 20 June 1599 will be confiscated. The Angamaly Church defied the command and boycotted the Synod unanimously; All the eighteen priests of the church abstained from the Synod. The militant Portuguese bishop through threats and offers of military and monetary support to the local king and chieftains managed to create a schism among Saint Thomas Christians and created a substantial Catholic presence in Angamaly.
After the Coonan Cross Oath of 1653, a delegate of the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, Gregorios Abdal Jaleel an archbishop of Jerusalem, arrived in Malabar. In 1665 he regularized the consecration of Thoma I as the first Metropolitan Bishop of Malankara. At first during his reign Thoma I was assisted by Angamaly Vengoor Gevarghese Kathanar, Kadavil Chandy Kathanar, Parambil Chandy, and Anjimootil Itty Thoman Kathanar, who lead the Coonan Cross Oath in 1653.
After the Synod of Diamper and Coonan Cross Oath, which lead to the schism among the Saint Thomas Christians, the Angamaly Cheriyapally came under the exclusive control of the Jacobite faction, who were known by then as the Puthenkoor. 84 out of the 116 total churches, including the Angamaly Kilakkeppalli, the former cathedral located at the end of the city market, came under Syrian Catholic (Palayakoor) governance. The Valiyapalli, located next to the St Marys Cheriyapally Church, was shared between the two factions until the their complete legal separation in the 18th century. Meanwhile, Thoma I had maintained his seat at Angamaly Cheriyapally. The 32 churches that remained with him, continued to be administered by him from Angamaly. He was buried in this church in 1670.
For many centuries this church and the Akaparambu Church (Mar Sabor and Mar Afroth) were a united parish and was administered by one council as is evident in the record of a general body meeting of 16-8-1069 (Malayalam Era).
In 1808 an ancient Bible written during the headship of Dionysius the Great at the Angamaly church was presented to the Anglican missionary Claudius Buchanan. This Bible is now preserved in the archives of the Cambridge University Library. This Syriac Bible might have been brought to India by Fathers from the Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate Antioch as its appendix includes intercessory prayers to Mary and Severios of Antioch.