The Church,
mapped.
An in-depth overview and database of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church today, covering its dioceses, institutions, clergy and history.
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Map data via Google My Maps.
Locate the Nearest Parish
Enter any place in the world, and the five nearest churches, chapels, or cathedrals will be identified.
Request Qurbana
If no parish is nearby, let us know — we work to bring Qurbana to underserved communities wherever the faithful may be.
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Behind every marker lies a history someone chose to set down — a founding date, a first Qurbana, a gathering of families.
A Communion, in Numbers
Every parish, chapel, and shrine accounted for — the full institutional life of the Church, gathered into a single census.
Counts reflect Orthodox-held institutions only. Institutions under schismatic occupation, and those founded since 1900 that have since closed, are listed on each institution and diocese page but not included in these totals.
The Churches figure also counts cathedrals and Catholicate centres, which are listed on their own pages; the other figures below count each institution once, under its own type.
A running estimate across every diocese and titular see worldwide.
Nineteen Centuries, Traced
Watch the Church grow through time. The globe flies to each event, and every parish lights up in the year it was founded.
Those Who Serve the Church
Drawn from the Church’s 2023 clergy directory.
1 Malankara Metropolitan View →
30 Metropolitans View all → 
77 Monks By diocese → 
117 Cor-Episcopi By diocese → 
1,931 Priests By diocese → 
79 Deacons By diocese →
Figures are drawn from the Church’s official 2023 clergy directory, and are here organised by diocese, ranked from metropolitans to deacons. The Priests figure also counts monks, cor-episcopas, and bishops, and the Monks figure also counts bishops who are monks; the directory pages list each person once, under their own rank.
Reading the Map
The directory catalogues the Church's full institutional life — episcopal palaces, monasteries and convents, cathedrals, directly-administered churches, thronal churches and mission churches, parishes, congregations and communities, Catholicate centres and retreat centres, chapels, major and minor seminaries, malpanates, mission training centres, Bible schools, campus ministries, and youth and student centres. Each marker carries its own symbol, keyed below.
Churches claimed by more than one diocese carry more than one pin on the edifice.
Proprietary churches — typically owned by a family or clan association — are consecrated under Malankara Orthodox rites and operate outside diocesan administration.
Since the 1974 schism, parishes of the Knanaya Diocese fall under the direct jurisdiction of the Catholicos in Devalokam.
This map does not count digital congregations, such as the Good Shepherd Orthodox Family Fellowship.
The Dioceses
Each diocese is traced in its own hue on the map, keyed below.
The Dioceses, on the Map
Kerala's fourteen districts, coloured by the diocese that covers each.
View the Kerala diocesan mapHide the Kerala diocesan map
District Numbers
Thrissur diocese overlaps Kochi and Malabar territory and was established for schismatic-majority parishes, so it is marked only by its individual parishes rather than a solid fill. Kandanad East likewise overlaps Kandanad West, so the two share a single colour above.
Sources
The principal directories and records behind the figures on this page are listed below. Hundreds of further sources are cited, each where it is used, on the individual pages devoted to specific topics.
View the full list of sourcesHide the full list of sources
Akkara Kurian Writer. Niranam Grandhavari. 2009.
Malankara Edavaka Pathrika, 1892–1906.
Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. Catholicate Day Collections Directory, 2022. Catholicate Palace, Devalokam, Kottayam. mosc.in/uploads/2022/03/CDC-Book.pdf
Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. Catholicate Day Collections Directory, 2024. Catholicate Palace, Devalokam, Kottayam. mosc.in/uploads/2023/03/CDC-Book-2024-1.pdf
Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. Catholicate Day Collections Directory, 2025. Catholicate Palace, Devalokam, Kottayam. mosc.in/uploads/2023/03/CDC-Book-2025.pdf
Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. Catholicate Day Collections Directory, 2026. Catholicate Palace, Devalokam, Kottayam. mosc.in/uploads/2023/03/CDC-Book-2026_compressed_compressed.pdf
St. Thomas Orthodox Vaidika Sanghom. Clergy Directory, 2023. Orthodox Theological Seminary, Kottayam. orthodoxvaidikasanghom.org/uploads/downloads/clergy-2023.pdf
Talmido — Malankara Orthodox Church resource archive. talmido.org
George, David. Malankara History. malankarahistory.com
This project was created and is supervised globally by Andrew Punnoose, with a team of 90+ coordinators worldwide. The website's background music is courtesy of Andrew Varughese (@malankaramusic), and the devotional artwork found throughout the site is shared with the generous blessing of Rev. Fr. Rijo Geevarghese.