Two priests, a queen, a pope and a book
The book that Paremmakkal Thomman Kathanar began to write in 1785 describing his travel to Lisbon and Rome is an unputdownable read for anyone interested in history
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On 14 November 1778, two Syrian Christian priests and two young priesthood aspirants from Kerala stood gazing at the Portuguese cargo ship they were about to board. The ship, Esperanca, was bound for Lisbon from the port of Chennapatana, today’s Chennai. They had reached Chennapatana after an arduous five-month journey from Athirampuzha, an interior village in Kerala, by country boat, by foot, dhow, and by sedan chair, finally scraping through the Anglo-French war zone in Puducherry. Their final destination was Rome.