Everything said about the Thomas tradition on the Malankara Orthodox page applies here: the tradition is continuous in Kerala and unverifiable outside it. The community was a single body, East Syriac in rite and under bishops sent from Persia, until the Portuguese arrived; the 1653 Coonan Cross Oath split it, and this church descends from those who returned to or remained in Roman obedience. It regained an indigenous hierarchy in 1887, its own bishops in 1896, a metropolitan province in 1923 under Mar Augustine Kandathil, and major archiepiscopal status in 1992. Migration has taken it worldwide, with eparchies in the Gulf, North America, Europe and Australia.