Mathews Mar Athanasius Metropolitan (1818–1877) was the head of Malankara Church which had its adherents in Travancore Cochin and Malabar states of India (present-day state of Kerala). This Church was founded by Thomas the Apostle of Jesus Christ who arrived in the 1st century (believed to be in 52 CE). The first Christians included Jews and the Wise Men from the East who saw Jesus as a baby in Bethlehem.