The Syriac (also called Syrian) Knananya Christians are a very distinct ethnic and religious group whose ancestry traces back to Abraham, the Patriarch of the Old Testament. Twenty years after the Nicaean Council, Knai Thoma, a rich international merchant from Cana, brought a colony of 400 Syriac Christians consisting of 72 families. They belonged to seven clans with instructions from the Patriarch of Antioch Mor Yusthedius, to the Malabar Coast of India. The group included men, women, children, Priests, deacons and their Bishop Mor Joseph of Eddessa or Uraha.