Marthoman Cheriyapally, Kothamangalam

Mar Thoma Cheriyapally, a church of the Jacobite Syrian Christians, stands in Kothamangalam town, Ernakulam district, believed to have been founded in 1455 by 18 families who left Marth Maryam Valiyapally. The Syriac bishop St Baselios Yeldo reached it in 1685, preached in the area and was entombed in its altar room after his death. The town was once known as Malakhachira, the place of the angel.

The annual feast of Mar Baselios Yeldo draws people of many faiths, and for over three centuries someone from a Hindu Nair family has walked at the head of its procession bearing the ceremonial lamp. In 2019, during the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, the church opened its grounds for Muslim protesters to offer evening prayers. After the 2017 Supreme Court ruling on Malankara churches, Jacobite members gathered here and tied ropes to the stone cross in a re-enactment of the 1653 Coonan Cross Oath, and the church has remained under Jacobite management.