Aleixo de Meneses

archbishop

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June 30, 2026

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Aleixo de Meneses was an archbishop who convened the Synod of Diamper in 1599. This council formally united the Thomas Christians of India's Malabar Coast with the Roman Catholic Church. The synod renounced Nestorianism and removed the local patriarch's authority, replacing him with a Portuguese bishop. Ancient traditions were altered with the introduction of Latin vestments and rituals. This forced Latinization led to a schism among the Thomas Christians by the mid-17th century.1

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Synod of Diamper
…was convoked in 1599 by Aleixo de Meneses, archbishop of Goa. The synod renounced Nestorianism, the heresy that believed in two persons rather than two natures in Christ, as the Indians were suspected of being heretics by the Portuguese missionaries. The local patriarch—representing the Assyrian Church of the East, to…
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…was convoked in 1599 by Aleixo de Meneses, archbishop of Goa. The synod renounced Nestorianism, the heresy that believed in two persons rather than two natures in Christ, as the Indians were suspected of being heretics by the Portuguese missionaries. The local patriarch—representing the Assyrian Church of the East, to…
Read More