Pazhayakoottukar

The Paḻayakūṟ (Pazhayakoor; English: "Old Allegiance"), also known as Romo-Syrians or Syrian Catholics of Malabar, are the Saint Thomas Christians who use the East Syriac Rite and claim apostolic origin from the Indian mission of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century AD.

The Saint Thomas Christians were originally in full communion with the Church of the East in Persia, from whom they inherited the East Syriac liturgical rite. Through the Schism of 1552, a faction of the Church of the East entered the Catholic Church. Following the 1599 Synod of Diamper, they were placed under the Latin Church's Padroado missionaries, who took over the jurisdiction of Angamaly. After the Coonan Cross Oath of 1653, which constituted a secession from the Padroado, the Paḻayakūṟ quickly returned to the Catholic Church as East Syriac Catholics under Archbishop Palliveettil Chandy.

Chandy's followers eventually became the Syro-Malabar Church, an Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with the Holy See. Another group within the Paḻayakūṟ returned to the traditions of the Church of the East and became the Chaldean Syrian Church, now part of the Assyrian Church of the East.