Francis Itty Cora [hot] May 2026

To look into Francis Itty Cora is not to look for a warrior or a king, but for a man who believed that the sacred can be hidden, but never lost—and that even in the mud of history, grace can be unearthed by those who seek with trembling hands and a stubborn heart.

Legend says that around 1500 years before his time, in the year AD 345, a group of 400 Syrian Christians—families, deacons, and their bishop Mar Joseph of Uraha—had arrived in Kodungallur. With them, they carried a precious relic: a stone cross inscribed with an ancient Pahlavi script. That cross, known as the Knanaya Cross, was later lost—hidden, perhaps, in the deep forests of Mattancherry, or buried beneath the rubble of time. francis itty cora

In 1506, during the Portuguese occupation, he convinced the Archbishop of Angamaly to let him search. For months, he wandered the Malabar coast, tracing old songs and half-forgotten landmarks. And then, on a hillock near present-day Ernakulam, he found it—half-sunken in earth, covered in wild roots, but intact. To look into Francis Itty Cora is not