Located on the Malabar Coast, India. This vicariate forms part
of the territory of the ancient Church of Malabar, which was
founded by St. Thomas and was governed by Syro-Chaldean bishops
until the end of the sixteenth century. In 1600 the Portuguese
authorities substituted Latin for the Syro-Chaldean bishops, and
from this date until 1887 the Syro-Chaldean Catholics remained
under the jurisdiction of the Latin bishops of Verapoly and
Cranganore and, on the suppression of that see, of Goa. By the
Brief "Quod jampridem" of 20 May, 1887, Leo XIII separated the
churches of the Syrian Rite on the Malabar Coast from the Latin
churches, and, while leaving the latter under the jurisdiction
of the Archbishop of Verapoly and the Bishop of Cochin, erected
the Syrian churches into two vicariates Apostolic for Northern
and Southern Malabar, styling them the Vicariates of Trichur and
Kottayam and declaring them independent of the jurisdiction of
the ecclesiastical province of Verapoly. By the Brief "Quæ rei
sacræ" of 28 J