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→Links with Persia
==Links with Persia==
The Persian connection of the Indian churches has to bee seen in the context of the internal dissensions and state persecution of Christians in Persia from the 5th century. A Synod of the Persian Church (410 AD) affirmed the faith of [[First Ecumenical Council|Nicea]] and acknowledged the Metropolitan of Selucia-Ctesiphon as the Catholicose of East. Not long after, the Christological controversies of [[Fourth Ecumenical Council|Chalcedon]], fuelled by the strains between the Persian and Byzantine empires, swayed the Persian church to declare itself "[[Nestorianism|Nestorian]]" and its head to assume the title of [[Patriarch ]] of the East (Babylon). From their base in then flourishing theological school of Nisibis, Nestorian missionaries began moving to India, Central Asia, China and Ethiopia to teach their doctrines- probably associating the churches in these countries with the work of St. Thomas the Apostle, whom the Persians must have venerated as the founder of their own church.
By the 7th Century, specific references of the Indian church began to appear in Persian records. The Metropolitan of India and the Metropolitan of China are mentioned in the consecration records of Patriarchs of the East. At one stage, however, the Indian church was claimed to be in the [[jurisdiction]] of the Metropolitan of Fars but this issue was settled by Patriarch Sliba Zoha (714-728 AD) who recognized the traditional dignity of the autonomous Metropolitan of India.
