city
Muziris (Thomas landing tradition)
Pattanam / Kodungallur (Cranganore), Kerala, India · India & Indian Ocean
10.154, 76.213
Approximate location.
Tradition. The port and its Roman trade are attested. Thomas's landing and the seven churches are tradition, written down much later. Christians in Malabar are attested by the 6th century (Cosmas).
Muziris was the great pepper port of Roman trade with India, known from Pliny, the Periplus and the Muziris papyrus. Saint Thomas Christian tradition says the apostle Thomas landed near here (at Kodungallur) in 52 CE and founded seven churches along the Kerala coast. In the 6th century Cosmas Indicopleustes reported Christians at 'Male, where pepper grows', on this coast.
Source stance: insider. Saint Thomas Christian tradition (insider). Classical trade sources are neutral.
People and groups named here
- Thomas the Apostle (traditional)
Sources
- Pleiades place 50146: Muziris
Pleiades Gazetteer (ISAW, NYU). Accessed 2026-11-11.
- Muziris (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors. Accessed 2026-11-11.
- St. Thomas Christians
Catholic Encyclopedia (1907-1912), public domain; New Advent. Accessed 2026-11-11.
- Cosmas Indicopleustes, Christian Topography, Book III (churches in Taprobane, Male, Kalliana, Dioscoris)
tr. J. W. McCrindle, Hakluyt Society (1897), public domain; tertullian.org. Accessed 2026-11-11.
Further reading
Councils here
None in this list.