The first written evidence of a Knanaya individual dates to the year 1301, with the writings of Zacharias the deacon of St. Kuriakose Church, Cranganore. Historically the Knanaya had a township and three churches namely of Saint Thomas the Apostle, Saint Kuriakose, and Saint Mary in the southern portion of the Chera Empire's capital city of Cranganore. According to tradition the three churches were built by Thomas of Cana when the community arrived to India. Zacharias was the 14-year-old deacon of St. Kuriakose Church as well as the scribe and pupil of Mar Yaqob of India, a 14th-century East Syriac bishop of Cranganore. Zacharias is the author of the oldest surviving Syriac manuscript of India archived as "Vatican Syrian Codex 22" which details the city of Cranganore, relations between the Church of the East and the St. Thomas Christians, the Patriarch Yahballaha III, and Mar Yaqob of Cranganore whom he describes in the following quote: