User:Chericot

Kerala Christian Families -Poothicote Family

One of the earliest Christian families of Kerala is the Poothicote family from Mepral, Tiruvalla. This family is known for its nobility, truthfulness, starightforwardness and aristocracy.The Poothicote family's origin is from one of the four Brahmin (Namboothiri) families from Palayur who were converted to Christianity by St Thomas.

The year was 52 AD and the place was a small village in the northern part of Kerala named Palayur. Those days Palayur was a traditional bastion of conservative Hindus. A small group of Jews lived nearby in a hilly place and they had a synagogue there.

One morning four Brahmin Hindu priests were conducting their ritualistic sun worship in the temple pond. They were from the four well known families of the area, Kadappu, Kalikavu (Kaliyankal), Shankuthiri, and Pakalomittom.

They were standing half immersed in water and sprinkling water upwards chanting Vedic mantras to the sun god. Suddenly a Jewish ascetic came and stopped near where they were worshipping. He was a visitor to the nearby synagogue and came from Jerusalem recently. The local Jews accompanied him. The visitor asked though his interpreter, what was going on. After getting their explanation he commented that it seemed the sun god was not accepting their offering, because the water fell back to the pond when they threw it up as an offering.

The Hindu priests asked what could happen differently. Then the visiting Jewish holy man told them that he could throw the water as a supplication to the living God who is the creator of sun and all the other celestial stars, and his God would accept it. As the priests gave permission, he got down to the pond and worshipped God in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and then threw the water up in to the air, and to all present it seemed the water drops remained suspended in the air. The visitor explained to the Hindu priests that he was Thomas, one of the Disciples of Christ. He further told them that Jesus was the incarnation of God, the father.The convinced priests accepted baptism from the hands of the Apostle. There are many other Christian families in Kerala claiming to be the descendents of each of these four Brahmins. According to this tradition, Christianity came to Kerala before it reached Europe or even Rome.