The Malankara Church is an autocephalous division of the Orthodox Syrian Church.The Malankara church was founded by St.Thomas, one of the apostle of Jesus Christ, who came to India in AD 52 and is included in the Orthodox Syrian Church of the East is the Catholicos.
The church entered into a new phase of its history by the establishment of the Catholicate in 1912. At present the church is using the West Syrian liturgy. The church is in communion with the other Oriental Orthodox Churches namely, Antiochene, Alexandrian, Armenian, Eritrean and Ethiopean Orthodox Churches. At present the church has over 2 million faithful all over the world. Today we are headed by the eighth Catholicos H H Baselios Marthoma Paulose II. There are 30 dioceses all over the church.
Adichanalloor St Behanans Orthodox Church near Chathannoor, 2.5 kms from Ithikkara belongs to Thiruvananthapuram Diocese of Malankara Orthodox Church lead by H G Dr.Gabriel Mar Gregorios Metropolitan. The diocese was fragmented from the Kollam diocese in 1979 and the first bishop of our diocese was H G Geevarghese Mar Dioscorus ably guided for 2 decades, who entered rest and entombed at Holy Trinity Asram,Ranni(on 23rd July 1999). The second bishop H G Mathews Mar Epiphanios lead us for 6 years.