Prologue

India’s first church was founded in 52 A.D. by Apostle Thomas, one of the twelve disciples of Jesus Christ. As commissioned by the Lord, the doubting Thomas became a fervent missionary and preached gospel throughout Malabar Coast. He died as martyr in 72 A.D. and was buried in a tomb near Chennai. Though Christianity was established in 52 A.D., the Christian movement throughout the rest of India was propagated only after the arrival of the European and North American missionaries in the 16th century.

Saint Francis Xavier, a Roman Catholic missionary commenced the great missionary work in 1542. The First Protestant missionaries Bartholomew Ziegenbalg and Pluetschau arrived in Tranquebar in July, 1706 and worked extensively by translating and printing the first Indian Bible in Tamil in 1714. William Carey, the father of modern missions arrived in Calcutta in November, 1793 and greatly influenced the missionary movement in India.

Christianity in the Telugu land is the result of several foreign missions. The following table provides the details of the foreign missions in Telugu region until the arrival of American Lutheran Mission.