Venerable Thomas Palackal

Palackal Thoma Malpan (c. 1780–1841) was an Indian Catholic priest of the Syro-Malabar Church based in India. He was the senior priest and founder who envisaged the formation of the first native religious institution in India, Carmelites of Mary Immaculate also known as C.M.I. (the first native religious institute of the Eastern Catholic Church), and the founder of the first seminary for Syro-Malabar Catholics. Palackal Thoma was born to the Palackal family, about 1780 in the village of Pallippuram, an ancient Christian priestly family in Kerala that trace their origin as Jewish lineage who were baptized by Thomas the Apostle, a disciple of Jesus Christ at Kottakkavu, North Paravoor. Most Christians in Kerala are known as Syrian Christians in view of the Syriac (classical form of Aramaic) liturgy used in church services since the early days of Christianity in India. They are also known as "Nasrani" (followers of Jesus the Nazarene). Pallippuram, is now part of the state of Kerala, then in the Kingdom of Travancore. Thoma Palackal felt a call to the Christian ministry, for which he pursued theological studies under a noted priest of the Syrian Church, Abraham Thachil. He received Holy Orders in 1807. After Palackal's ordination he was named as Secretary for the Saint Thomas Christians and a councilor to the Vicariate Apostolic of Malabar (now the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Verapoly), Raimundo di San Giuseppe Roviglia, who led them in the name of the Holy See in Rome. He would serve as a councilor to the Apostolic Vicariate for the rest of his life. As a major leader of Syrian Catholic Church in India, Palackal introduced many Western practices among his people. These included the use of a Roman style white cassock by the clergy, in order to distinguish them from the clergy of the Jacobite Christians.