Indian Antiquary Vol 57

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 65

MARCH, 1928)
MAR SAPOR AND MAR PRODH
and wrought many miracles. But there is no record of what they did, neither is there any regular tradition. We think they were Nestorians. So the Holy Synod commands that all the churches bearing this name be dedicated to All Saints and that the festivals of those churches be celebrated on their day, November 1. And the festival held in their name on April 19th should not henceforward be celebrated, nor should churches be built in their name."'3
These are the earliest surviving documents yet known (to me) about these two saints. There may be others extant in Syriac and other languages in Malabar and in the country from which they came. The accounts of later writers do not shed any light on the obscure portions of the history of these Kadisas (Syriac : holy men, saints). Some of those are mentioned below in chronological order.
1. Gouvea : Jornada, 97. [Menezes in 1599, was shown a set of three copper-plates granted by the King who founded Quilon, to the Têvallakkara Church erected by Mar Xabro and Mar Phrod.] See Mackenzie's Christianity in Travancore (1901), p. 60. Also Hough's Christianity in India (1839), II, 170, 171. (These plates may have been those given to the Quilon Tarisa Church in the latter half of the ninth century.)
2. De Souza, Oriente Conquistado (1710), II. Conq. 1, Div. 2, para. 16. [Archbishop Roz had read in Syriac books * about these saints and their miracles.] Were these MSS. burned by Menezes or are copies still discoverable in Malabar ?
3. Assemani : Bibliotheca Orientalis (1719-1728). [They came in A.D. 922.]
4. Le Quien : Oriens Christianus (1740), II. 1275. See Travancore State Manual, II. 144. Two Bishops came to Quilon about A.D. 880. They were very holy, built many churches, made the Christian religion prevail in the kingdom of Diamper and gained converts in many places in Malabar, especially in Quilon.] See Giamil's Genuinae Relationes, etc. (1902), pp. 582—584.
5. Moens : Memorandum of 1781. See Dutch in Malabar (Madras, 1911), p. 173. [Two Bishops, Mar Sapor and Mar Peroses, came from Babylon=Modaim or Seleucia after A.D. 829.1 Loc. cit., Galletti's footnotes 2 and 3. [Mar Sapir and Mar Prodh came from Bagdad. Ct. Milne Rae, p. 108.]
6. Dr. Forster : footnoto, A.D. 1798, at p. 91 of Fr. Paulinus' Voyage to the East Indies. 1776-89 (London, 1800). [Two Nestorian prieste, Mar Sapor and Mar Parges, came from Babylon to Quilon in A.D. 822.]
7. Richard and Giraud : Bibliotheca Sacra (1835), Tom. II, p. 176. [They were holy men.]
8. Hough: Christianity in India (1839), I. pp. 197, 198. [Two Syrian ecclesiastics, Mar Sapores and Mar Pheroz, came from Babylon to Quilon in A.D. 920.]
9. Ittoop : Syrian Christian Church of Malabar in Malayalam, 1896), pp. 95, 96. [Two Bishops, Mar Sabor and Mar Aprôt, came from Babylon to Quilon in A.D. 825, 1.e., M.E. 1. They came in a ship belonging to a merchant called Savasis, were given a grand reception by the Archdeacon and his people, held interviews with the ruling princes, toured the country, built churches, reformed the Church, made conversions, and raised the whole Christian community in the estimation of ticho.)
10. Mackenzio: Christianity in Travancore, (Travancore State Manual, 1906, II. p. 142.) Two Bishops, Mar Sapir and Mar Prodh, were at Quilon about A.D. 825.]
3 The Parago you quote from a Malayalam MS. is not in the decrees of the Diamper Council. Can you state the session and docroo ! I have looked carefully twice through the decrees, but cannot find the passage. It is not in the course of the Jornada either. I find the first passage quoted by you from Hough in Session & deco 26.-H.H. [The numbers in the Malayalam version, which is fullor, do not tally with those in the printed one.-T.K.J.)
No book on Mar Sapor is mentioned in the list of forbidden books drawn up at the Council, which were to be burnod. Do 80'iza, loc. cit., supra, speaks, of a Syriao M8. road by Rox in which a miracle was attributed to Mar Johanan of Cranganore before the arrival of the Portuguese
6 Aggemani gives A.D. 922, and Lo Quien, quoted by Raulin (p. 435), gives about A.D. 800.