ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with the aspects of magic in Syrian Christian Society as a narrative around the everyday pursuits of the recognition of the unfamiliar. It uses data from various sources to understand why the theme of magic appears in the life of the St. Thomas Christians of Kerala. The stories around Kadamattath Kattanar are well known to all and often reproduced in film, play, graphic novels, newspapers, cartoons and TV serial shows. Kadamattath Kattanar on the other hand is a much more ambiguous figure, when compared to St. Thomas the Apostle, or Parimalla Tirumeni. He is believed to have lived in the fifteenth century, when Malabar was still visited by itinerant bishops from the Middle East. The chapter explains that Thomas the Apostle himself was associated with rites which veered between magic and miracle. It is said that the first disciple of Thomas the Apostle in Kerala was a young Brahmin boy from the vill.
