The East Syriac tradition arose in Mesopotamia, beyond the frontiers of the Roman Empire, among Christians who prayed in Syriac and produced a missionary Church of extraordinary reach: its monks and merchants carried the Gospel along the trade routes to Central Asia, China and India. Two Catholic Churches sui iuris hold this patrimony — the Chaldean Catholic Church of Iraq and the Syro-Malabar Church of Kerala, whose Saint Thomas Christians trace their origin to the Apostle himself.

Its Divine Liturgy is the Holy Qurbana, celebrated principally in the Anaphora of the Apostles Addai and Mari, one of the most ancient eucharistic prayers in continuous use. The rite is sober and biblical, with a strong place given to the psalms, to processions between the sanctuary and the bema, and to the Syriac and Malayalam chant of its two great Churches.

The Mesopotamian liturgical family of the Holy Qurbana of Addai and Mari, celebrated by the Chaldean and Syro-Malabar Catholic Churches.

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Iraq, Iran and Kerala in India, with communities across the diaspora

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Some five million Catholics, the great majority of them in the Syro-Malabar Church