Mar Hormizd Syro-Malabar Cathedral, Angamaly

Mar Hormizd Cathedral, locally known as the Eastern Church of Angamaly (Malayalam: അങ്കമാലി കിഴക്കേപ്പള്ളി, romanized: Angamali Kiḻakkeppaḷḷi) or the Cathedral Church (Malayalam: അരമനപള്ളി, romanized: Aramanappaḷḷi), is a Syro-Malabar church in Angamaly, India. It was built in 1578 by Mar Abraham, the last East Syriac Metropolitan to reach the Malabar Coast. It is one of the oldest and is historically the most important of the three ancient Syrian churches in Angamaly. It is dedicated to Mar Hormizd, a seventh-century East Syriac saint.

The Chaldean bishop Mar Abraham was ordained as the Archbishop of Angamali and Rabban Hormiz Church was the Cathedral church. Mar Abraham came to Malabar in 1570 as a Chaldean Catholic Archbishop after being previously imprisoned by the Portuguese in Goa. Angamaly, being a centre of Saint Thomas Christians and being an inland settlement ruled by native kings, provided a safer headquarters for the Chaldean archbishop and therefore he settled Angamaly as his episcopal see to govern the Syro-Malabar Church of India. Its jurisdiction extended all over the Indian subcontinent until the 16th century. This title denotes a quasi-patriarchal status with all India jurisdiction. The church houses the tomb of Mar Abraham who died in 1597. The most ancient school (university in Portuguese accounts) for Malpan (ecclesiastical) training was functioning at Angamaly next to the Cathedral Church, much before the arrival of the Portuguese. Following the death of Mar Abraham, the padroado Roman Catholics, led by Archbishop of Goa Alexis de Menesis, managed to block the arrival of further Syriac bishops and succeeded in organising the Synod of Diamper, a pseudo-diocesan synod, and forcibly brought the Syro-Malabar Christians under their jurisdiction. The Synod questioned the status of the cathedral, anathematized Rabban Hormizd and decreed to replace the patron saint's name and commemorations with that of Hormizd the Martyr. The church, however, retained that cathedral status until Francisco Roz moved the diocesan headquarters to Kodungallur.