Thomas the Apostle

Born 1st century AD, Galilee

Died AD 72 , Mylapore, India

The holy, glorious and all-laudable Apostle Thomas is included in the number of the holy Twelve Apostles of the Savior. He was ready to die with Jesus when Christ went to Jerusalem, but is best remembered for doubting the Resurrection until allowed to touch Christ’s wounds. Preached in Parthia, Persia and India, though he was so reluctant to start the mission that he had to be taken into slavery by a merchant headed that way. He eventually gave in to God’s will, was freed, and planted the new Church over a wide area. He formed many parishes and built many churches along the way. An old tradition says that Thomas baptised the wise men from the Nativity into Christianity.

His symbol is the builder’s square; there are several stories that explain it.

He built a palace for King Guduphara in India

He built the first church in India with his own hands

It is representative building a strong spiritual foundation as he had complete faith in Christ (though initially less in the Resurrection)

He offered to build a palace for an Indian king that would last forever; the king gave him money, which Thomas promptly gave away to the poor; he explained that the palace he was building was in heaven, not on earth

Death

stabbed with a spear c.72 in while in prayer on a hill in Mylapur, India and buried near the site of his death. His relics later moved to Edessa, Mesopotamia.His relics moved to Ortona, Italy in the 13th century

The Apostle Thomas was born in the Galileian city of Pansada and was a fisherman. Hearing the good tidings of Jesus Christ, he left all and followed after him. Saint Thomas was one of the fisherman on the Lake of Galilee whom Our Lord called to be His Apostles. By nature slow to believe, too apt to see difficulties and to look at the dark side of things, he had nonetheless a very sympathetic, loving, and courageous heart.When Jesus spoke to His apostles of His forthcoming departure, and told His faithful disciples that they already knew the Way to follow Him, Saint Thomas, in his simplicity, asked: “Lord, we know not whither Thou goest, and how can we know the way?”

When the Master during a journey turned back to go toward Bethany, near Jerusalem, to the grave of Lazarus, the apostle Thomas, knowing of the malevolent intentions of the Jerusalem religious authorities, at once feared the worst for his beloved Lord. Yet he cried out bravely: “Let us go then and die with Him!”

After the Resurrection his doubts prevailed, and while the wounds of the crucifixion remained vividly imprinted in his affectionate memory, he could not credit the report that Christ had risen. But at the actual sight of the pierced hands and side, and the gentle rebuke of his Saviour, his unbelief vanished forever. His faith and ours have always triumphed in his joyous utterance: “My Lord and my God!”

That Saint Thomas, after the dispersion of the Apostles, went to India, where he labored and died at Meliapour, is a certain fact of history. The Roman Breviary states that he preached in Ethiopia and Abyssinia, as well as in Persia and Media. Surely his was a remarkable history, reserved for the inhabitants of Christ’s glory to see in its fullness some day.

Before he died in Meliapour, he erected a very large cross and predicted to the people that when the sea would advance to the very foot of that cross, God would send them, from a far-distant land, white men who would preach to them the same doctrine he had taught them. This prophecy was verified when the Portuguese arrived in the region, and found that the ocean had advanced so far as to be truly at the foot of the cross. At the foot of this cross was a rock where Saint Thomas, while praying fervently, suffered his martyrdom by a blow from the lance of a pagan priest. This happened, according to the Roman Breviary, at Calamine, which is in fact Meliapour, for in the language of the people the word Calurmine means on the rock (mina). The name was given the site in memory of the Apostle’s martyrdom.

According to Holy Scripture, the holy Apostle Thomas did not believe the reports of the other disciples about the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: "Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe" (John 20:25).

On the eighth day after the Resurrection, the Lord appeared to the Apostle Thomas and showed him His wounds. "My Lord and my God," the Apostle cried out (John 20:28). "Thomas, being once weaker in faith than the other apostles," says St John Chrysostom, "toiled through the grace of God more bravely, more zealously and tirelessly than them all, so that he went preaching over nearly all the earth, not fearing to proclaim the Word of God to savage nations."

Some icons depicting this event are inscribed "The Doubting Thomas." This is incorrect. In Greek, the inscription reads, "The Touching of Thomas." In Slavonic, it says, "The Belief of Thomas." When St Thomas touched the Life-giving side of the Lord, he no longer had any doubts. According to Church Tradition, the holy Apostle Thomas founded Christian churches in Palestine, Mesopotamia, Parthia, Ethiopia and India. Church Traditon also indicates that Apostle Thomas baptized the Magicitation needed. Preaching the Gospel earned him a martyr's death. For having converted the wife and son of the prefect of the Indian city of Meliapur (Melipur), the holy apostle was locked up in prison, suffered torture, and finally, pierced with five spears, he departed to the Lord. Part of the relics of the holy Apostle Thomas are in India, in Hungary and on Mt. Athos. The name of the Apostle Thomas is associated with the Arabian (or Arapet) Icon of the Mother of God (September 6).

First, when Jesus announced His intention of returning to Judea to visit Lazarus, "Thomas" who is called Didymus [the twin], said to his fellow disciples:

"Let us also go, that we may die with him" (John 11:16). Again it was St. Thomas who during the discourse before the Last Supper raised an objection:" Thomas saith to him : Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?" (John 14:5). But more especially St. Thomas is remembered for his incredulity when the other Apostles announced Christ's Resurrection to him: " Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe" (John 20:25); but eight days later he made his act of faith, drawing down the rebuke of Jesus: "Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed" (John 20:29).

This exhausts all our certain knowledge regarding the Apostle but his name is the starting point of a considerable apocryphal literature, and there are also certain historical data which suggest that some of this apocryphal material may contains germs of truth. The principal document concerning him is the "Acta Thomae", preserved to us with some variations both in Greek and in Syriac, and bearing unmistakeable signs of its Gnostic origin. It may indeed be the work of Bardesanes himself. The story in many of its particulars is utterly extravagant, but it is the early date, being assigned by Harnack (Chronologie, ii, 172) to the beginning of the third century, before A. D. 220. If the place of its origin is really Edessa, as Harnack and others for sound reasons supposed (ibid., p. 176), this would lend considerable probability to the statement, explicitly made in "Acta" (Bonnet, cap. 170, p.286), that the relics of Apostle Thomas, which we know to have been venerated at Edessa, had really come from the East. The extravagance of the legend may be judged from the fact that in more than one place (cap. 31, p. 148) it represents Thomas (Judas Thomas, as he is called here and elsewhere in Syriac tradition) as the twin brother of Jesus. The Thomas in Syriac is equivalant to XXXXX in Greek, and means twin. Rendel Harris who exaggerates very much the cult of the Dioscuri, wishes to regards this as a transformation of a pagan worship of Edessa but the point is at best problematical. The story itself runs briefly as follows: At the division of the Apostles, India fell to the lot of Thomas, but he declared his inability to go, whereupon his Master Jesus appeared in a supernatural way to Abban, the envoy of Gundafor, an Indian king, and sold Thomas to him to be his slave and serve Gundafor as a carpender. Then Abban and Thomas sailed away until they came to Andrapolis, where they landed and attended the marriage feast of the ruler's daughter. Strange occurences followed and Christ under the appearence of Thomas exhorted the bride to remain a Virgin. Coming to India Thomas undertook to build a palace for Gundafor, but spend the money entrusted to him on the poor. Gundafor imprisoned him; but the Apostle escaped miraculously and Gundafor was converted. Going about the country to preach, Thomas met with strange adventures from dragons and wild asses. Then he came to the city of King Misdai (Syriac Mazdai), where he converted Tertia the wife of Misdai and Vazan his son. After this he was condemed to death, led out of city to a hill, and pierced through with spears by four soldiers. He was buried in the tomb of the ancient kings but his remains were afterwards removed to the West.

Now it is certainly a remarkable fact that about the year A.D. 46 a king was reigning over that part of Asia south of Himalayas now represented by Afghanistan, Baluchistan, the Punjab, and Sind, who bore the name Gondophernes or Guduphara. This we know both from the discovery of coins, some of the Parthian type with Greek legends, others of the Indian types with the legends in an Indian dialect in Kharoshthi characters. Despite sundry minor variations the identity of the name with the Gundafor of the "Acta Thomae" is unmistakable and is hardly disputed. Further we have the evidence of the Takht-i-Bahi inscription, which is dated and which the best specialists accept as establishing the King Gunduphara probably began to reign about A.D. 20 and was still reigning in 46. Again there are excellent reasons for believing that Misdai or Mazdai may well be transformation of a Hindu name made on the Iranian soil. In this case it will probably represent a certain King Vasudeva of Mathura, a successor of Kanishka. No doubt it can be urged that the Gnostic romancer who wrote the "Acta Thomae" may have adopted a few historical Indian names to lend verisimilitude to his fabrication, but as Mr. Fleet urges in his severely critical paper "the names put forward here in connection with St.Thomas are distinctly not such as have lived in Indian story and tradition" (Joul. of R. Asiatic Soc.,1905, p.235).

On the other hand, though the tradition that St. Thomas preached in "India" was widely spread in both East and West and is to be found in such writers as Ephraem Syrus, Ambrose, Paulinus, Jerome, and, later Gregory of Tours and others, still it is difficult to discover any adequate support for the long-accepted belief that St. Thomas pushed his missionary journeys as far south as Mylapore, not far from Madras, and there suffered martyrdom. In that region is still to be found a granite bas-relief cross with a Pahlavi (ancient Persian) inscription dating from the seventh century, and the tradition that it was here that St. Thomas laid down his life is locally very strong. Certain it is also that on the Malabar or west coast of southern India a body of Christians still exists using a form of Syriac for its liturgical language. Whether this Church dates from the time of St. Thomas the Apostle (there was a Syro-Chaldean bishop John "from India and Persia" who assisted at the Council of Nicea in 325) or whether the Gospel was first preached there in 345 owing to the Persian persecution under Shapur (or Sapor), or whether the Syrian missionaries who accompanied a certain Thomas Cana penetrated to the Malabar coast about the year 745 seems difficult to determine. We know only that in the sixth century Cosmas Indicopleustes speaks of the existence of Christians at Male (?Malabar) under a bishop who had been consecrated in Persia. King Alfred the Great is stated in the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" to have sent an expedition to establish relations with these Christians of the Far East. On the other hand the reputed relics of St. Thomas were certainly at Edessa in the fourth century, and there they remained until they were translated to Chios in 1258 and towards to Ortona. The improbable suggestion that St. Thomas preached in America (American Eccles. Rev., 1899, pp.1-18) is based upon a misunderstanding of the text of the Acts of Apostles (i, 8; cf. Berchet "Fonte italiane per la storia della scoperta del Nuovo Mondo", II, 236, and I, 44).

Besides the "Acta Thomae" of which a different and notably shorter redaction exists in Ethiopic and Latin, we have an abbreviated form of a so-called "Gospel of Thomas" originally Gnostic, as we know it now merely a fantastical history of the childhood of Jesus, without any notably heretical colouring. There is also a "Revelatio Thomae", condemned as apocryphal in the Degree of Pope Gelasius, which has recently been recovered from various sources in a fragmentary condition (see the full text in the Revue benedictine, 1911, pp. 359-374).

Little is recorded of St. Thomas the Apostle, nevertheless thanks to the fourth Gospel his personality is clearer to us than that of some others of the Twelve. His name occurs in all the lists of the Synoptists (Matthew 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6, cf. Acts 1:13), but in St. John he plays a distinctive part. First, when Jesus announced His intention of returning to Judea to visit Lazarus, "Thomas" who is called Didymus [the twin], said to his fellow disciples: "Let us also go, that we may die with him" (John 11:16). Again it was St. Thomas who during the discourse before the Last Supper raised an objection: "Thomas saith to him: Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?" (John 14:5). But more especially St. Thomas is remembered for his incredulity when the other Apostles announced Christ's Resurrection to him: "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe" (John 20:25); but eight days later he made his act of faith, drawing down the rebuke of Jesus: "Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed" (John 20:29).

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During Jesus public ministry they repeatedly fail to “get it.” In fact Jesus wears himself out trying to hammer the truth through their thick skulls. After witnessing three years of miracles, one of them betrays Jesus and the leader of the group denies him. All but one run away when he’s crucified, and no one believes Mary Magdalene when she brings them the news of his resurrection. But the episode recounted in John 20:19-31 takes the cake. The Risen Christ appears to the twelve on Easter Sunday evening. Or rather, I should say he appeared to the ten. Judas, the traitor, had taken his own life. And Thomas, the twin, missed the occasion. When Thomas returns to the group, he refuses to believe them. He demands empirical proof submitted personally to his lordship: “Unless I put my finger in the nail marks in his hands and place my hand in his side, I will not believe.” This sounds more like a pouting of a child than the words of an apostle.

In justice, Jesus could have just said “enough.” Thomas had already seen so much. Acts 1 tells us that Judas was replaced by Matthias. This ungrateful skeptic could easily have been replaced as well. But Jesus does not deal with us by virtue of strict justice. God forbid! No, he comes to us in mercy, giving us what we do not deserve. And that’s how he dealt with this doubter. A week later, he gives him what he asked for. Imagine how badly Thomas yearned to eat his words as he put his hand into the sacred side of the New Adam.

Thomas can’t be said to come to true “faith” in the resurrection through all this. Because faith is about believing what you can’t see. Walking by faith means NOT walking by sight. In heaven, we’ll see God face to face, so “faith” will be no more. Blessed, says Jesus, are those who have not seen, and yet believe. But Thomas does come to faith in something else that he can’t quite see. He saw Lazarus, the son of the widow of Nain plus the daughter of Jairus, all raised from the dead. Thomas now looks at yet another risen human being before him and says what he did not say to the prior three: “My Lord and My God.” Thomas here professes what can only be seen by the eye of faith. The resurrection of Jesus is not just a marvel for Ripley’s Believe it or Not. Jesus is not just some first century Houdini. No, his resurrection is a sign that he is the Messiah, the King, even the Eternal God, come in the flesh. So this man, humbled by Christ’s mercy, is content to be known for all generations as “Doubting Thomas.” He and the other apostles spread a story in which they look real bad. And for it they receive not privilege but persecution and death. So why do they spread the story? Because it’s the truth. And because it’s a proclamation of the Divine Mercy of God who does not reject the thick-headed, the weak, and the doubting but instead gives them the power to become strong, loving, and wise. “Behold,” says Jesus, “I make all things new.” (Rev 21:5)

St. Thomas the Apostle (First Century)

The Apostle St Thomas (also called Didymus, 'twin') is the subject of a masterly character sketch in St John's Gospel. It is important because he is not unlike many well-meaning people of today who have received a technical education and nothing else, and believe only what they can see and touch. He comes to notice when, against the protests of the frightened disciples, Jesus insists on returning to Judea to raise Lazarus from the dead. Thomas, loyal and pessimistic, enlists the others to go too, 'that we may die with him' (John 11:7-16). Then, at the Last Supper, when Jesus tells his disciples that he is about to leave them and that they know the way where he is going, this same common-sense Thomas, evidently under great strain, cries, 'Lord, we do not know where you are going; and how can we know the way?' Jesus treats him to the sublime answer: 'I am the - way . . . No one goes to the Father save through me.'

The shattering blow of the crucifixion was followed by 'women's tales' of a resurrection. Poor Thomas, who had not died with him after all, was away, perhaps hiding his head in sullen bitterness, when Jesus appeared to the rest. He met their enthusiastic testimony with obstinate disbelief which became neurotically brutal: 'Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and put my finger in the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.' A sad, lonely week must have followed for him, with the others so happy. Then he rejoined them in his loyal way, although the doors were still shut for fear of the Jews. Only Jesus could convince him, and he came specially to give him the proof he demanded: 'Bring your finger here and see my hands; and put forth your hand and place it in my side; and be not unbelieving, but believing.' Thomas needed no more and burst into the great cry which is the climax of St John's Gospel and Christianity's age-long confession: 'My Lord and my God.' Peter and Thomas are the first two disciples mentioned as present when Jesus manifested himself at the sea of Galilee. Thomas would not be left out again.Jesus said to Thomas: 'Have you believed because you have seen? Blessed are they who have not seen and yet believe.' Here is encouragement to those who receive God's gift of faith with the simplicity of a child. But Jesus never said men should shut their eyes, and St Gregory remarks that Thomas's doubt helps us more than the faith of others. Faith is above reason, but reason leads to faith, for the things men see and touch point beyond themselves. To deny this brings neurotic conflict. St Thomas's feast on December 21st is fittingly near the day when we celebrate the Incarnation. A strong, early tradition makes him the Apostle of India.

Acts of Judas Thomas

Acta Thomae, the apocryphal book is historically dated around end of first century soon after the martyrdom of St. Thomas. There are several ancients texts in existence in various languages such as Syriac, Greek, Latin, Armenian and Ethiopic. The original manuscripts are found in the British Museum. This book gives a detailed account of Apostle Thomas’ labors in nine parts. The gist of the book is as follows: After the ascension of Jesus Christ, the Apostles met in Jerusalem and portioned all the countries of the world among themselves. India which at that time included all Middle East to the present India fell to the lot of St. Thomas. A certain merchant by name Habban - the Raja Vaidehika of Indian King Gundnaphor came to Jerusalem looking for a carpenter to take home to the King. Christ appeared to Habban and asked him whether he was there for a carpenter. He said “yes”. Jesus introduced himself as Jesus the Carpenter from Nazareth and sold his slave Thomas to Habban for twenty pieces of silver and pointed Thomas to him. Habban asked Thomas whether Jesus was his master. Thomas answered “Yes, he is my Lord.” Habban told Thomas, “He has sold you to me outright.” Thomas was dumb founded. In the morning, Thomas prayed, “Lord, Let thy will be done” and went with Habban. He took with him nothing except the twenty pieces of silver which Jesus gave him. They took the sea route to India and landed in a port called Sandruk Mahosa . Here Habban was received by the local King. They attended the wedding of the King’s daughter and St. Thomas demonstrated his ability of miracle healing on the troubled daughter of the King by the laying on of hands. There after they continued their journey in India. They reached the Kingdom of Gundaphorus and Thomas was commissioned to build a palace for the King in the shores of the River. However St. Thomas out of his pity gave away the money to the poor and could not build the palace. He was put in the prison. However that night the King’s brother Gad died and he was told the beautiful palace beside the river in the heavens was his brothers. He came back from the dead and told the story to the King. They were later converted to the Christian way.

After ordaining one Xantippus (Xenophon) as deacon to the churches in North India St. Thomas traveled throughout India and converted many to Christianity . Among them are the names of: King of Mazdai, a noble lady by name Mygdonia, Tertia the queen of Mazdai. He was martyred outside the cities on a mountain at the hands of four soldiers.

Local Tradition

In almost complete support to the book there is a time honored tradition in Malabar which is handed down to us from generation to generation in the form of the songs of the Nazranis as Margom Kali. The other tradition comes from Veeradian pattu which is performed by a Hindu Caste on Christian festivals and is their heritage. Another written document is the Thomma Parvam written by Thomas Ramban in 1601 for use in the Niranam church. This Thomas Ramban is a descendant of one of the first Brahmin convert to Christianity christened as Ramban Thomas during St. Thomas' visit. The story is handed down through generations until it was written down in 1601. Apostle Thomas landed in Cranganoor (Kodungallur, Muziris) and took part in the wedding of Cheraman Perumal and proceeded to the courts of Gondophorus in North India. By the discovery of Trade winds, the sea route most favored from Yemen boarder to India was to Kerala. Trade winds were discovered in A.D. 45 by Hippalus and the merchant route to Kerala went directly to Yemeni Ports and then proceeded to the Spice route over Palestine.

According to Thomma Parvom the visit of St. Thomas in Kerala lasted only eight days in the first instant. During this period the main converts were Jews who were settled in Malabar. (There was a large Jewish community in Cochin at that time) . During his second visit over three thousand became Christians. The first convert was a Brahmin from Maliyakal who became Thomas Maliyakal the Ramban. Among them were 75 Brahmin families along with Jews, Kshatriyas, Nairs and Chettiars. One Jewish prince by name Kepha (Peter) was later ordained as bishop when St. Thomas left for the rest of Kerala and India. The seven original churches established by St. Thomas were located at Malayankara (Malayattur), Palayur (near Chavakkad), Koovakayal (near North Paravur), Kokkamangalam (South Pallipuram), Kollam, Niranam and Nilackel (Chayal). Each local parish was self-administered, guided by a group of presbyters and presided over by the elder priest or episcopa (bishop).

The King Gondophorus

This King was a mystery figure until recently. No one knew of a King by that name or a Kingdom corresponding to the description given in the tradition. However excavations in both east and west of Indus has unearthed coins and inscriptions which made it clear that Gundaphorus was indeed a historical figure and that he belonged to the Parthian Dynasty from Takshasila (Taxila). On the obverse of the coin is the figure of King Gondophorus with his name inscribed clearly. On the reverse is the figure of Shiva with his trident and with the clear inscription in Greek“Maharaja- rajaraja-samahata- dramia-devavrata- Gundaphorasa.” The date of his reign is clearly marked in the Takth-i-Bahi stones kept in Lahore museum which is 17 inches long and 14 1/2 inches wide and states: “In the twenty-sixth year of the great King Gudaphoara, in the year three and one hundred, in the month of Vaishakh, on the fifth day” This places his ascension to the Kingdom as AD 19 and the year 103 corresponds to AD 46. Further evidence indicates that this King had a brother named Gad.

Soon after, this kingdom was over ran by several invasions and the churches established in the Northern India vanished with the Parthian Empire without a trace. The Christian community seems to have gone underground with a strong vow of silence in the face of massacre and severe persecutions. Even today there is an underground Christian Sanyasi group who surfaces whenever there is a need to help the missions. Sadhu Sunder Singh reports that he had been taken care of by these secret sects on one of his Himalayan journeys.

After leaving Taxila St. Thomas evangelized various parts of India and finally arrived in Madras where he was martyred by a tribal chief. His tomb can still be seen in Mylapore.

Malankara Syrian Christians

Malankara Syrian Christians today traces their heritage from the Apostle Thomas. Today they belong to various denominations such as the Orthodox Church, Mar Thoma church, St.Thomas Evangelical Church, Church of South India, Roman Catholic and other independent evangelicals.

St. Thomas was a Jew, called to be one of the twelve Apostles. He was a dedicated but impetuous follower of Christ. When Jesus said He was returning to Judea to visit His sick friend Lazarus, Thomas immediately exhorted the other Apostles to accompany Him on the trip which involved certain danger and possible death because of the mounting hostility of the authorities. At the Last Supper, when Christ told His Apostles that He was going to prepare a place for them to which they also might come because they knew both the place and the way, Thomas pleaded that they did not understand and received the beautiful assurance that Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. But St. Thomas is best known for his role in verifying the Resurrection of his Master. Thomas' unwillingness to believe that the other Apostles had seen their risen Lord on the first Easter Sunday merited for him the title of "doubting Thomas." Eight days later, on Christ's second apparition, Thomas was gently rebuked for his scepticism and furnished with the evidence he had demanded - seeing in Christ's hands the point of the nails and putting his fingers in the place of the nails and his hand into His side. At this, St. Thomas became convinced of the truth of the Resurrection and exclaimed: "My Lord and My God," thus making a public Profession of Faith in the Divinity of Jesus. St. Thomas is also mentioned as being present at another Resurrection appearance of Jesus - at Lake Tiberias when a miraculous catch of fish occurred. This is all that we know about St. Thomas from the New Testament. Tradition says that at the dispersal of the Apostles after Pentecost this saint was sent to evangelize the Parthians, Medes, and Persians; he ultimately reached India, carrying the Faith to the Malabar coast, which still boasts a large native population calling themselves "Christians of St. Thomas." He capped his left by shedding his blood for his Master, speared to death at a place called Calamine. His feast day is July 3rd and he is the patron of architects.

Tradition says that at the dispersal of the Apostles after Pentecost this Saint was sent to evangelize the Parthians, Medes, and Persians; he ultimately reached India, carrying the Faith to the Malabar coast, which still boasts a large native population calling themselves "Christians of St. Thomas." He capped his life by shedding his blood for his Master, speared to death at a place called Calamine.

St. Thomas is a patron of architects. His feast day is July 3rd.

Thomas Sunday (the 1st Sunday after Easter, October 6, and June 30 Synaxis of the Apostles) (Eastern Orthodox Churches)

December 21 (on local calendars and among Traditional Roman Catholics)

Thomas in the Gospel of John

Thomas appears in a few passages in the Gospel of John. In John 11:16, when Lazarus has just died, the disciples are resisting Jesus' decision to return to Judea, where the Jews had previously tried to stone Jesus. Jesus is determined, and Thomas says bravely: "Let us also go, that we might die with him" (NIV) He also speaks at The Last Supper.[Jn. 14:5] Jesus assures his disciples that they know where he is going but Thomas protests that they don't know at all. Jesus replies to this and to Philip's requests with a detailed exposition of his relationship to God the Father.

In Thomas' best known appearance in the New Testament, [Jn. 20:24-29] he doubts the Death and resurrection of Jesus and demands to touch Jesus' wounds before being convinced. Caravaggio's painting, The Incredulity of Saint Thomas (illustration above), depicts this scene. This story is the origin of the term Doubting Thomas. After seeing Jesus alive (the Bible never states whether Thomas actually touched Christ's wounds), Thomas professed his faith in Jesus, exclaiming "My Lord and my God!" On this account he is also called Thomas the Believer.

Name and identity

There is disagreement and uncertainty as to the identity of Saint Thomas. One recent theory is presented in the book The Jesus Family Tomb. The authors, Simcha Jacobovici and Pellegrino, identify him with two of those who were interred in the Talpiot Tomb, "Yehuda son of Yeshua."

Twin and its renditions

The Greek Didymus: in the Gospel of John.[11:16] [20:24] Thomas is more specifically identified as "Thomas, also called the Twin (Didymus)". The Aramaic Tau'ma: the name "Thomas" itself comes from the Aramaic word for twin: T'oma (תאומא). Thus the name convention Didymus Thomas thrice repeated in the Gospel of John is in fact a tautology that could potentially be interpreted as omitting the Twin's actual name.

Other names

The Nag Hammadi "sayings" Gospel of Thomas begins: "These are the secret sayings that the living Jesus spoke and Didymos Judas Thomas recorded." Syrian tradition also states that the apostle's full name was Judas Thomas, or Jude Thomas. Some have seen in the Acts of Thomas (written in east Syria in the early 3rd century, or perhaps as early as the first half of the 2nd century) an identification of Saint Thomas with the apostle Judas brother of James, better known in English as Jude. However, the first sentence of the Acts follows the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles in distinguishing the apostle Thomas and the apostle Judas son of James. Few texts identify Thomas' other twin, though in the Book of Thomas the Contender, part of the Nag Hammadi library, it is said to be Jesus himself: "Now, since it has been said that you are my twin and true companion, examine yourself…"

Veneration as a Saint

Thomas is revered as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Churches, the Oriental Orthodox Churches and the Anglican Communion. In the Roman Catholic Church, his traditional feast day is December 21. In 1970, in order that it would no longer interfere with the major ferial days of Advent, his feast was moved to July 3, the day on which his relics were translated from Mylapore, a place along the coast of the Marina Beach, Chennai in India to the city of Edessa in Mesopotamia. Roman Catholics who follow the traditional calendar, as well as Anglicans who worship according to one of the classical Books of Common Prayer (e.g. 1662 English or 1928 American), continue to celebrate his feast day on December 21.

For the Eastern Orthodox Churches, the Eastern Catholic Churches and the Coptic Orthodox Church he is remembered each year on Saint Thomas Sunday, which falls on the Sunday after Easter. In addition, the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic churches celebrate his feast day on October 6 (for those churches which follow the traditional Julian Calendar, October 6 currently falls on October 19 of the modern Gregorian Calendar). He is also commemorated in common with all of the other apostles on June 30 (July 13), in a feast called the Synaxis of the Holy Apostles. He is also associated with the "Arabian" (or "Arapet") Icon of the Theotokos (Mother of God), which is commemorated on September 6 (September 19).

Later history

Thomas and the Assumption of Mary

According to The Passing of Mary, a text attributed to Joseph of Arimathaea, Thomas was the only witness of the Assumption of Mary into heaven. The other apostles were miraculously transported to Jerusalem to witness her death. Thomas was left in India, but after her burial he was transported to her tomb, where he witnessed her bodily assumption into heaven, from which she dropped her girdle. In an inversion of the story of Thomas' doubts, the other apostles are skeptical of Thomas' story until they see the empty tomb and the girdle. Thomas' receipt of the girdle is commonly depicted in medieval and pre-Tridentine Renaissance art.

Thomas and Syria

"Judas, who is also called Thomas" (Eusebius, H.E. 13.12) has a role in the legend of king Abgar of Edessa (Urfa), for having sent Thaddaeus to preach in Edessa after the Ascension (Eusebius, Historia ecclesiae 1.13; III.1; Ephrem the Syrian also recounts this legend.) In the 4th century the martyrium erected over his burial place brought pilgrims to Edessa. In the 380s, Egeria described her visit in a letter she sent to her community of nuns at home (Itineraria Egeriae):

"we arrived at Edessa in the Name of Christ our God, and, on our arrival, we straightway repaired to the church and memorial of saint Thomas. There, according to custom, prayers were made and the other things that were customary in the holy places were done; we read also some things concerning saint Thomas himself. The church there is very great, very beautiful and of new construction, well worthy to be the house of God, and as there was much that I desired to see, it was necessary for me to make a three days' stay there."

Historical references about Thomas

Many early Christian writings, which belong to centuries immediately following the first Ecumenical Council of 325, exist about Thomas' mission. The Acts of Thomas, sometimes called by its full nameThe Acts of Judas Thomas: 2nd/3rd century (c. 180-230) Gist of the testimony: The Apostles cast lots as to where they should go, and to Thomas, twin brother of Jesus, fell India. Thomas was taken to king Gondophares as an architect and carpenter by Habban. The journey to India is described in detail. After a long residence in the court he ordained leaders for the Church, and left in a chariot for the kingdom of Mazdei. There, after performing many miracles, he dies a martyr. These are generally rejected by various Christian religions as either apocryphal or heretical. The two centuries that lapsed between the life of the apostle and recording this work, casts doubt on their authenticity.

Clement of Alexandria: 3rd century (d.c. 235); Church represented: Alexandrian/Greek Biographical Note : Greek Theologian, b. Athens, 150. Clement makes a passing reference to St. Thomas’ Apostolate in Parthia. This agrees with the testimony which Eusebius records about Pantaenus' visit to India.

A 13th-century Armenian illumination, by Toros Roslin.

Doctrine of the Apostles: 3rd century; Church represented: Syrian “After the death of the Apostles there were Guides and Rulers in the Churches…..They again at their deaths also committed and delivered to their disciples after them everything which they had received from the Apostles;…(also what) Judas Thomas (had written) from India”.

“India and all its own countries, and those bordering on it, even to the farther sea, received the Apostle’s hand of Priesthood from Judas Thomas, who was Guide and Ruler in the Church which he built and ministered there”. In what follows “the whole Persia of the Assyrians and Medes, and of the countries round about Babylon…. even to the borders of the Indians and even to the country of Gog and Magog” are said to have received the Apostles’ Hand of Priesthood from

Aggaeus the disciple of Addaeus

Origen Century : 3rd century (185-254?), quoted in Eusebius; Church represented: Alexandrian/ Greek Biographical. Christian Philosopher, b-Egypt, Origen taught with great acclaim in Alexandria and then in Caesarea. He is the first known writer to record the casting of lots by the Apostles. Origen original work has been lost; but his statement about Parthia falling to Thomas has been preserved by Eusebius. “Origen, in the third chapter of his Commentary on Genesis, says that, according to tradition, Thomas’s allotted field of labour was Parthia”.

Eusebius of Caesarea: 4th century (died 340); Church Represented: Alexandrian/Greek Biographical [16] Quoting Origen, Eusebius says: “When the holy Apostles and disciples of our Saviour were scattered over all the world, Thomas, so the tradition has it, obtained as his portion Parthia….”

Ephrem: 4th century; Church Represented: Syrian Biographical Many devotional hymns composed by St. Ephraem, bear witness to the Edessan Church’s strong conviction concerning St. Thomas’s Indian Apostolate. There the devil speaks of St. Thomas as “the Apostle I slew in India”. Also “The merchant brought the bones” to Edessa.

In another hymn apostrophising St. Thomas we read of “The bones the merchant hath brought”. “In his several journeyings to India, And thence on his return, All riches, which there he found, Dirt in his eyes he did repute when to thy sacred bones compared”. In yet another hymn Ephrem speaks of the mission of Thomas “The earth darkened with sacrifices’ fumes to illuminate”. “A land of people dark fell to thy lot”, “a tainted land Thomas has purified”; “India’s dark night” was “flooded with light” by Thomas.

Gregory of Nazianzus: 4th century(died 389); Church Represented: Alexandrian. Biographical Note: Gregory of Nazianzus was born AD 330, consecrated a bishop by his friend St. Basil in 372 his father, the Bishop of Nazianzus induced him to share his charge. In 379 the people of Constantinople called him to be their bishop. By the Orthodox Church he is emphatically called “the Theologian’. “What? were not the Apostles strangers amidst the many nations and countries over which they spread themselves? … Peter indeed may have belonged to Judea; but what had Paul in common with the gentiles, Luke with Achaia, Andrew with Epirus, John with Ephesus, Thomas with India, Mark with Italy?”

Ambrose of Milan: 4th century (died 397); Church Represented: Western. Biographical Note: St. Ambrose was thoroughly acquainted with the Greek and Latin Classics, and had a good deal of information on India and Indians. He speaks of the Gymnosophists of India, the Indian Ocean, the river Ganges etc., a number of times.[“This admitted of the Apostles being sent without delay according to the saying of our Lord Jesus… Even those Kingdoms which were shut out by rugged mountains became accessible to them, as India to Thomas, Persia to Matthew..”

St. Jerome (342- 420). St. Jerome's testimony : “He (Christ) dwelt in all places: with Thomas in India, Peter at Rome, with Paul in Illyricum.”

St. Gaudentius (Bishop of Brescia, before 427). St. Gaudentius' testimony: “John at Sebastena, Thomas among the Indians, Andrew and Luke at the city of Patras are found to have closed their careers.”

St. Paulinus of Nola (died 431). St. Paulinus' testimony :“Parthia receives Mathew, India Thomas, Libya Thaddeus, and Phrygia Philip”.

St. Gregory of Tours (died 594) St. Gregory's testimony: “Thomas the Apostle, according to the narrative of his martyrdom is stated to have suffered in India. His holy remains (corpus), after a long interval of time, were removed to the city of Edessa in Syria and there interred. In that part of India where they first rested, stand a monastery and a church of striking dimensions, elaborately adorned and designed. This Theodore, who had been to the place, narrated to us.’

St. Isidore of Seville in Spain (d. c. 630). St. Isidore's testimony: “This Thomas preached the Gospel of Christ to the Parthians, the Medes, the Persians, the Hyrcanians and the Bactrians, and to the Indians of the Oriental region and penetrating the innermost regions and sealing his preaching by his passion he died transfixed with a lance at Calamina (present Mylapore),a city of India, and there was buried with honour”.

St. Bede the Venerable (c. 673-735).St. Bede's testimony : “Peter receives Rome, Andrew Achaia; James Spain; Thomas India; John Asia"

Christianity in India

The indigenous church of Kerala, India has a tradition that St. Thomas sailed there to spread the Christian faith. He landed at the ancient port of Muziris (which became extinct in 1341 AD) near Kodungalloor. He then went to Palayoor (near preset-day Guruvayoor), which was a priestly community at that time. He left Palayoor in AD 52 for the southern part of what is now Kerala State, where he established the Ezharappallikal, or "Seven and Half Churches". These churches are at Kodungallur, Kollam, Niranam, Nilackal (Chayal), Kokkamangalam, Kottakkayal (Paravoor), Palayoor (Chattukulangara) and Thiruvithamcode Arappally (Travancore) - the half church. (See also Saint Thomas of Mylapur).

"It was to a land of dark people he was sent, to clothe them by Baptism in white robes. His grateful dawn dispelled India's painful darkness. It was his mission to espouse India to the One-Begotten. The merchant is blessed for having so great a treasure. Edessa thus became the blessed city by possessing the greatest pearl India could yield. Thomas works miracles in India, and at Edessa Thomas is destined to baptize peoples perverse and steeped in darkness, and that in the land of India." - Hymns of St. Ephraem, edited by Lamy (Ephr. Hymni et Sermones, IV).

Eusebius of Caesarea[26] quotes Origen (died mid-3rd century) as having stated that Thomas was the apostle to the Parthians, but Thomas is better known as the missionary to India through the Acts of Thomas, perhaps written as late as ca 200. In Edessa, where his remains were venerated, the poet Ephrem the Syrian (died 373) wrote a hymn in which the Devil cries...Into what land shall I fly from the just?

I stirred up Death the Apostles to slay, that by their death I might escape their blows. But harder still am I now stricken: the Apostle I slew in India has overtaken me in Edessa; here and there he is all himself. There went I, and there was he: here and there to my grief I find him. —quoted in Medlycott 1905, ch. ii.

St. Ephraem, the great doctor of the Syrian Church, writes in the forty-second of his "Carmina Nisibina" that the Apostle was put to death in India, and that his remains were subsequently buried in Edessa, brought there by an unnamed merchant.

A Syrian ecclesiastical calendar of an early date confirms the above and gives the merchant a name. The entry reads: "3 July, St. Thomas who was pierced with a lance in India. His body is at Urhai [the ancient name of Edessa] having been brought there by the merchant Khabin. A great festival." It is only natural to expect that we should receive from Edessa first-hand evidence of the removal of the relics to that city; and we are not disappointed, for St. Ephraem, the great doctor of the Syrian Church, has left us ample details in his writings.

A long public tradition in the church at Edessa honoring Thomas as the Apostle of India resulted in several surviving hymns that are attributed to Ephrem, copied in codices of the 8th and 9th centuries. References in the hymns preserve the tradition that Thomas' bones were brought from India to Edessa by a merchant, and that the relics worked miracles both in India and at Edessa. A pontiff assigned his feast day and a king and a queen erected his shrine. The

Thomas traditions became embodied in Syriac liturgy, thus they were universally credited by the Christian community there. There is also a legend that Thomas had met the Biblical Magi on his way to India.

An early third-century Syriac work known as the Acts of Thomas connects the apostle's Indian ministry with two kings, one in the north and the other in the south. According to one of the legends in the Acts, Thomas was at first reluctant to accept this mission, but the Lord appeared to him in a night vision and said, “Fear not, Thomas. Go away to India and proclaim the Word, for my grace shall be with you.”But the Apostle still demurred, so the Lord overruled the stubborn disciple by ordering circumstances so compelling that he was forced to accompany an Indian merchant, Abbanes, to his native place in northwest India, where he found himself in the service of the Indo-Parthian king, Gondophares. The apostle's ministry resulted in many conversions throughout the kingdom, including the king and his brother.

Critical historians treated this legend as an idle tale and denied the historicity of King Gundaphorus until modern archaeology established him as an important figure in North India in the latter half of the first century. Many coins of his reign have turned up in Afghanistan, the Punjab, and the Indus Valley. Remains of some of his buildings , influenced by Greek architecture, indicate that he was a great builder. Interestingly enough, according to the legend, Thomas was a skilled carpenter and was bidden to build a palace for the king. However, the Apostle decided to teach the king a lesson by devoting the royal grant to acts of charity and thereby laying up treasure for the heavenly abode. Although little is known of the immediate growth of the church, Bar-Daisan (A.D. 154-223) reports that in his time there were Christian tribes in North India which claimed to have been converted by Thomas and to have books and relics to prove it.[28] But at least by the time of the establishment of the Second Persian Empire (A.D. 226), there were bishops of the Church of the East in northwest India, Afghanistan and Baluchistan, with laymen and clergy alike engaging in missionary activity.

The Acts of Thomas identifies his second mission in India with a kingdom ruled by King Mahadwa, one of the rulers of a first-century dynasty in southern India. It is most significant that, aside from a small remnant of the Church of the East in Kurdistan, the only other church to maintain a distinctive identity is the Mar Thoma or “Church of Thomas” congregations along the Malabar Coast of Kerala State in southwest India. According to the most ancient tradition of this church, Thomas evangelized this area and then crossed to the Coromandel Coast of southeast India, where, after carrying out a second mission, he suffered martyrdom near Madras. Throughout the period under review, the church in India was under the jurisdiction of Edessa, which was then under the Mesopotamian patriarchate at Seleucia-Ctesiphon and later at Baghdad and Mosul. Historian Vincent A. Smith says, “It must be admitted that a personal visit of the Apostle Thomas to South India was easily feasible in the traditional belief that he came by way of Socotra, where an ancient Christian settlement undoubtedly existed. I am now satisfied that the Christian church of South India is extremely ancient... ”.

Although there was a lively trade between the Near East and India via Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf, the most direct route to India in the first century was via Alexandria and the Red Sea, taking advantage of the Monsoon winds, which could carry ships directly to and from the Malabar coast. The discovery of large hoards of Roman coins of first-century Caesars and the remains of Roman trading posts testify to the frequency of that trade. in addition, thriving Jewish colonies were to be found at the various trading centers, thereby furnishing obvious bases for the apostolic witness.

Piecing together the various traditions, one may conclude that Thomas left northwest India when invasion threatened and traveled by vessel to the Malabar coast, possibly visiting southeast Arabia and Socotra enroute and landing at the former flourishing port of Muziris on an island near Cochin (c. A.D. 51-52).

From there he is said to have preached the gospel throughout the Malabar coast, though the various churches he founded were located mainly on the Periyar River and its tributaries and along the coast, where there were Jewish colonies. he reputedly preached to all classes of people and had about seventeen thousand converts, including members of the four principal castes. Later, stone crosses were erected at the places where churches were founded, and they

became pilgrimage centres. In accordance with apostolic custom Thomas ordained teachers and leaders or elders, who were reported to be the earliest ministry of the Malabar church.

Thomas next proceeded overland to the Coromandel coast and ministered in what is now the Madras area, where a local king and many people were converted. One tradition related that he went from there to China via Malacca and, after spending some time there, returned to the Madras area (Breviary of the Mar Thoma Church in Malabar). Apparently his renewed ministry outraged the Brahmins, who were fearful lest Christianity undermined their social structure, based on the caste system. So according to the Syriac version of the Acts of Thomas, Masdai, the local king at Mylapore, after questioning the apostle condemned him to

death about the year A.D. 72. Anxious to avoid popular excitement, “for many had believed in our Lord, including some of the nobles,”the king ordered Thomas conducted to a nearby mountain, where, after being allowed to pray, he was then stoned and stabbed to death with a lance wielded by an angry Brahmin. A number of Christians were also persecuted at the same time; when they refused to apostatize, their property was confiscated, so some sixty-four families eventually fled to Malabar and joined that Christian community.

Return of the relics

In 232 the relics of the Apostle Thomas are said to have been returned by an Indian king and brought back from India to the city of Edessa, Mesopotamia, on which occasion his Syriac Acts were written. The Indian king is named as "Mazdai" in Syriac sources, "Misdeos" and "Misdeus" in Greek and Latin sources respectively, which has been connected to the "Bazdeo" on the Kushan coinage of Vasudeva I, the transition between "M" and "B" being a current one in Classical sources for Indian names. The martyrologist Rabban Sliba dedicated a special day to both the Indian king, his family, and St Thomas "Coronatio Thomae apostoli et Misdeus rex Indiae, Johannes eus filius huisque mater Tertia" ("Coronation of Thomas the Apostole, and Misdeus king of India, together with his son Johannes (thought to be a latinization of Vizan) and his mother Tertia") Rabban Sliba. After a short stay in the Greek island of Chios, on September 6, 1258, the relics were transported to the West, and now rest in Ortona, Italy.

Southern India had maritime trade with the West since ancient times. Egyptian trade with India and Roman trade with India flourished in the first century AD.

In AD 47, the Hippalus wind was discovered and this led to direct voyage from Aden to the South Western coast in 40 days. Muziris (Kodungallur) and Nelcyndis or Nelkanda (near Kollam) in South India, are mentioned as flourishing ports, in the writings of Pliny the Elder (AD 23-79). Pliny has given an accurate description of the route to India, the country of Cerebothra (the Cheras). Pliny has referred to the flourishing trade in spices, pearls, diamonds and silk between Rome and Southern India in the early centuries of the Christian era. Though the Cheras controlled Kodungallur port, Southern India belonged to the Pandyan Kingdom, that had sent embassies to the court of Augustus Caesar.

According to Indian Christian mythology, St. Thomas landed in Kodungallur in AD 52, in the company of a Jewish merchant Abbanes (Hebban). There were Jewish colonies in Kodungallur since ancient times and Jews continue to reside in Kerala till today, tracing their ancient history.

In AD 522, Cosmas Indicopleustes (called the Alexandrian) visited the Malabar Coast. He is the first traveller who mentions Syrian Christians in Malabar, in his book Christian Topography. He mentions that in the town of "Kalliana" (Quilon or Kollam), there is a bishop consecrated in Persia. Metropolitan Mar Aprem writes, "Most church historians, who doubt the tradition of the doubting Thomas in India, will admit there was a church in India in the middle of the sixth century when Cosmas Indicopleustes visited India."

There is a copper plate grant given to Iravi Korttan, a Christian of Kodungallur (Cranganore), by King Vira Raghava. The date is estimated to be around AD 744. In AD 822, two Nestorian Persian Bishops Mar Sapor and Mar Peroz came to Malabar, to occupy their seats in Kollam and Kodungallur, to look after the local Syrian Christians (also known as St. Thomas Christians).

Shrine of Saint Thomas in Meliapore, 18th century print.

Marco Polo, the Venetian traveller and author of Description of the World, popularly known as Il Milione, is reputed to have visited South India in 1288 and 1292. The first date has been rejected as he was in China at the time, but the second date is accepted by many historians. He is believed to have stopped in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and Quilon (Kollam) on the western Malabar coast of India, where he met Syrian Christians and recorded their legends of St. Thomas and his miraculous tomb on the eastern Coromandel coast of the country. Il Milione, the book he dictated on his return to Europe, was on its publication condemned as a collection of impious and improbable traveller's tales but it became very popular reading in medieval Europe and inspired Spanish and Portuguese sailors to seek out the fabulous, and possibly Christian, India described in it.

Near Chennai (formerly Madras) in India stands a small hillock called St. Thomas Mount, where the Apostle is said to have been killed in A.D. 72 (exact year not established). Also to be found in Chennai is the Dioceses of Saint Thomas of Mylapore to which his mortal remains were transferred.

Tomb of the Apostle

The Indian tradition, in which elements of the traditions of Malabar, Coromandel and the Persian Church intermingled firmly held that Thomas the Apostle died near the ancient town of Mylapore. His mortal remains were buried in the town and his burial place was situated in the right hand chapel of the Church or house known after his name. The Portuguese excavated it in 1523. A number of scholars who are said to have made an examination of the records stated that the Portuguese excavations were “ unreliable”.

Beginning with the Acts of Thomas (c.200), in almost every century there are statements about the existence of his tomb in India. The location of the tomb, as given in seventh century, is (Calamina or Qalimaya) and Myluph or Meilan (12th-14th centuries). From the end of 14th century onwards there are references to the tomb of the Apostle in Mylapore.

Even before the Portuguese opened the tomb in Mylapore in the XVIth century, it was believed to have been the tomb of Saint Thomas and was visited by both Christian and non Christian pilgrims and travelers. Three of the five complete MS copies of Mar Solomon of Basora’s (1222) “Book of the Bees” speak of Mahluph (Mylapore) ” a city in the land of the Indians” where “others say” St. Thomas was buried.

The accounts of Marco Polo (1295), Oderick (Italian Franciscan, 1324,1325), Am’r son of Matthew (Christian Arab writer, 1340), Marignoli (Papal legate in China, 1394), Nicholas de Conti (Italian merchant, 1425-1430) who visited Mylapore, mentions it as the burial place of the Apostle.

First, when Jesus announced His intention of returning to Judea to visit Lazarus, "Thomas" who is called Didymus [the twin], said to his fellow disciples: "Let us also go, that we may die with him" (John 11:16). Again it was St. Thomas who during the discourse before the Last Supper raised an objection: "Thomas saith to him: Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?" (John 14:5). But more especially St. Thomas is remembered for his incredulity when the other Apostles announced Christ's Resurrection to him: "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into

the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe" (John 20:25); but eight days later he made his act of faith, drawing down the

rebuke of Jesus: "Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed" (John 20:29).

This exhausts all our certain knowledge regarding the Apostle but his name is the starting point of a considerable apocryphal literature, and there are also certain historical data which suggest that some of this apocryphal material may contains germs of truth. The principal document concerning him is the "Acta Thomae", preserved to us with some variations both in Greek and in Syriac, and bearing unmistakeable signs of its Gnostic origin. It may indeed be the work of Bardesanes himself. The story in many of its particulars is utterly extravagant, but it is the early date, being assigned by Harnack (Chronologie, ii, 172) to the beginning of the third century, before A.D. 220. If the place of its origin is really Edessa, as Harnack and others for sound reasons supposed (ibid., p. 176), this would lend considerable probability to the statement, explicitly made in "Acta" (Bonnet, cap. 170, p. 286), that the relics of Apostle Thomas, which we know to have been venerated at Edessa, had really come from the East. The extravagance of the legend may be judged from the fact that in more than one place (cap. 31, p. 148) it represents Thomas (Judas Thomas, as he is called here and elsewhere in Syriac tradition) as the twin brother of Jesus. The Thomas in Syriac is equivalant to didymos in Greek, and means twin. Rendel Harris who exaggerates very much the cult of the Dioscuri, wishes to regards this as a transformation of a pagan worship of Edessa but the point is at best problematical. The story itself runs briefly as follows: At the division of the Apostles, India fell to the lot of Thomas, but he declared his inability to go, whereupon his Master Jesus appeared in a supernatural way to Abban, the envoy of Gundafor, an Indian king, and sold Thomas to him to be his slave and serve Gundafor as a carpenter. Then Abban and Thomas sailed away until they came to Andrapolis, where they landed and attended the marriage feast of the ruler's daughter. Strange occurrences followed and Christ under the appearance of Thomas exhorted the bride to remain a Virgin. Coming to India Thomas undertook to build a palace for Gundafor, but spend the money entrusted to him on the poor. Gundafor imprisoned him; but the Apostle escaped miraculously and Gundafor was converted. Going about the country to preach, Thomas met with strange adventures from dragons and wild asses. Then he came to the city of King Misdai (Syriac Mazdai), where he converted Tertia the wife of Misdai and Vazan his son. After this he was condemed to death, led out of city to a hill, and pierced through with spears by four soldiers. He was buried in the tomb of the ancient kings but his remains were afterwards removed to the West.

the identity of the name with the Gundafor of the "Acta Thomae" is unmistakable and is hardly disputed. Further we have the evidence of the Takht-i-Bahi

inscription, which is dated and which the best specialists accept as establishing the King Gunduphara probably began to reign about A.D. 20 and was still

reigning in 46. Again there are excellent reasons for believing that Misdai or Mazdai may well be transformation of a Hindu name made on the Iranian soil. In

this case it will probably represent a certain King Vasudeva of Mathura, a successor of Kanishka. No doubt it can be urged that the Gnostic romancer who

wrote the "Acta Thomae" may have adopted a few historical Indian names to lend verisimilitude to his fabrication, but as Mr. Fleet urges in his severely

critical paper "the names put forward here in connection with St.Thomas are distinctly not such as have lived in Indian story and tradition" (Journal of R.

Asiatic Soc., 1905, p. 235).

On the other hand, though the tradition that St. Thomas preached in "India" was widely spread in both East and West and is to be found in such writers as

Ephraem Syrus, Ambrose, Paulinus, Jerome, and, later Gregory of Tours and others, still it is difficult to discover any adequate support for the long-

accepted belief that St. Thomas pushed his missionary journeys as far south as Mylapore, not far from Madras, and there suffered martyrdom. In that region is still to be found a granite bas-relief cross with a Pahlavi (ancient Persian) inscription dating from the seventh century, and the tradition that it was here that St. Thomas laid down his life is locally very strong. Certain it is also that on the Malabar or west coast of southern India a body of Christians still exists using a form of Syriac for its liturgical language. Whether this Church dates from the time of St. Thomas the Apostle (there was a Syro-Chaldean bishop John "from India and Persia" who assisted at the Council of Nicea in 325) or whether the Gospel was first preached there in 345 owing to the Persian persecution under Shapur (or Sapor), or whether the Syrian missionaries who accompanied a certain Thomas Cana penetrated to the Malabar coast about the year 745 seems difficult to determine. We know only that in the sixth century Cosmas Indicopleustes speaks of the existence of Christians at Male (? Malabar) under a bishop who had been consecrated in Persia. King Alfred the Great is stated in the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" to have sent an expedition to establish relations with these Christians of the Far East. On the other hand the reputed relics of St. Thomas were certainly at Edessa in the fourth century, and there they remained until they were translated to Chios in 1258 and towards to Ortona. The improbable suggestion that St. Thomas preached in America (American Eccles. Rev., 1899, pp. 1-18) is based upon a misunderstanding of the text of the Acts of the Apostles (1:8; cf. Berchet "Fonte italiane per la storia della scoperta del Nuovo Mondo", II, 236, and I, 44).

St. Thomas, the disciple who at first did not believe, has become for the Church one of the first witnesses to her faith. She is fond of appealing to his testimony and frequently puts in our mouths those simple words whereby he expressed the fervour of his regained faith: "My Lord and my God." It is known that St. Thomas preached the Gospel in Asia beyond the frontiers of the Roman Empire, probably in Persia and possibly as far afield as India. St. Thomas' feast was formerly celebrated on December 21.

According to the 1962 Missal of Bl. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today is the feast of St. Irenaeus, Doctor of the Church, who wrote many important works of which the most famous is his Adversus Haereses, Against the Heresies, in explanation of the Faith. His feast in the Ordinary Form is celebrated on June 28.

Historically today is the feast of St. Leo II, one of the last Popes of the early Middle Ages. His short pontificate (682-683) was marked by the confirmation of the sixth ecumenical council at which the Monothelite heresy was condemned. St. Leo II also perfected the melodies of the Gregorian chant for the Psalms and composed some new hymns.

St. Thomas

There is very little about the apostle Thomas in the Gospels; one text calls him the "twin." Rarely during Jesus' lifetime does he stand out among his colleagues. There is the instance before the raising of Lazarus, when Jesus was still in Perea and Thomas exclaimed: "Let us also go and die with Him." Best-known is his expression of unbelief after the Savior's death, giving rise to the phrase "doubting Thomas." Nevertheless, the passage describing the incident, had as today's Gospel, must be numbered among the most touching in Sacred Scripture.In the Breviary lessons Pope St. Gregory the Great makes the following reflections: "Thomas' unbelief has benefited our faith more than the belief of the other disciples; it is because he attained faith through physical touch that we are confirmed in the faith beyond all doubt. Indeed, the Lord permitted the apostle to doubt after the resurrection; but He did not abandon him in doubt. By his doubt and by his touching the sacred wounds the apostle became a witness to the truth of the resurrection. Thomas touched and cried out: My Lord and my God! And Jesus said to him: Because you have seen Me, Thomas, you have believed. Now if Thomas saw and touched the Savior, why did Jesus say: Because you have seen Me, Thomas, you have believed? Because he saw something other than what he believed. For no mortal man can see divinity. Thomas saw the Man Christ and acknowledged His divinity with the words: My Lord and my God. Faith therefore followed upon seeing."

Concerning later events in the apostle's life very meager information exists. The Martyrology has this: "At Calamina (near Madras in India) the martyrdom of the apostle Thomas - he announced the Gospel to the Parthians, and finally came to India. After he had converted numerous tribes to Christianity, he was pierced with lances at the king's command."

Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch. Patron: Against doubt; architects; blind people; builders; construction workers; Ceylon East Indies; geometricians; India; masons; Pakistan; people in doubt; Sri Lanka; stone masons; stonecutters; surveyors; theologians.

Symbols: Spear and lance; carpenter's square and lance; builder's rule; arrows; five wounds of our Lord; girdle; book and spear; spear; t-square.

Much has been written and said about Thomas' weakness of faith. St. Gregory the Great saw God's providential ways: The unbelief of Thomas has benefited us more than the faith of Magdalene. Should we not then reflect on our own failings? So often do we make the firmest resolutions to avoid this or that fault, and yet how easily we repeat it. Give some thought to God's ultimate purpose in permitting your faults and to how valuable for our soul's progress is the realization of our weakness and wretchedness.

At the St. Thomas Day celebration in New Delhi on December 18, 1955, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the then President of India, said: "St. Thomas came to India when many of the countries of Europe had not yet become Christian, and so those Indians who trace their Christianity to him have a longer history and a higher ancestry than that of Christians of many of the European countries."It would be appropriate to cite here an extract from the radio message of Pope Pius XII on 31 December, 1952 on the occasion of the 19th century celebrations of the arrival of the Apostle in India: "Nineteen hundred years have passed since the Apostle came to India [...] During the centuries that India was cut off from the West and despite many trying vicissitudes, the Christian communities formed by the Apostle conserved intact the legacy he left them [...] This apostolic lineage, beloved sons and daughters, is the proud privilege of the many among you who glory in the name of Thomas Christians and we are happy on this occasion to acknowledge and bear witness to it."

There are people who doubt about the apostolate of St. Thomas in India. However, according to the tradition, St. Thomas, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ, came to India in 52 A.D., and landed at Kodungallur on the Malabar (presently Kerala) coast. He preached the Gospel to the Brahmin families of Kerala, many of whom received the faith. He established seven Churches there: Kodungallur, Kottakkavu, Palayur, Kollam, Kokkamangalam, Niranam and Chayil. It is also a tradition that he frequently visited Malayattoor hills for prayer. Later, he moved on to the east coast of India. He was martyred in 72 A.D. by a fanatic at Little Mount (near Madras) and his body was brought to Mylapore (near Madras) and was buried there. His tomb is venerated until this day. This tradition is confirmed by the testimonies of many of the Fathers of the Church. It was not difficult for the Apostle to come to India, because extensive trade relations existed between Malabar and the Mediterranean countries even before the Christian Era. There is nothing to contradict this tradition.

Trade Relationships

Extensive trade relations existed between Malabar and the Mediterranean countries even before the Christian era. The numerous golden coins of the Roman Empire which have been found all over the south, as well as many recent discoveries, offer abundant proof that Roman trade centers existed along the southern coasts of India. While King Solomon was ruling over the Israelites (B.C. 970-930), his warships brought back to his country valuable merchandise supposed to be from Muziris (Cranganore), a defunct international port of Malabar. While discussing the dealings of the Phoenicians with Muziris, the Roman historian Pliny (A.D. 23-79) complained that every year they were sending large sum of money to India for silk, pearls, gems and spices. He also remarked that the Malabar ships were visiting the Persian Gulf, Aden, the Red Sea and Egypt. Pliny, Ptolemy (A.D. 100-160) and the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea give much detailed information about the trading centers of Malabar. Diplomatic relations between India and Roman Empire existed even before the Christian era. There were Jewish colonies in Malabar in the first century.

Traditions

According to the Acts of Judas-Thomas, which probably originated in the last quarter of the second century A.D. or the first years of the third, the Apostle St. Thomas preached the Gospel in the land of Gundaphares, a Parthian King, during the second quarter of the first century.Besides this literary tradition favoring a Thomistic apostolate on the north-west borders of Hindustan, there is another, in favor of his preaching among the Dravidian populations of the south where there is the living presence of a strong body of Christians. The findings of Palayur, Arthad, Nilamperur, and so on, the sanctuary of Mylapore venerated as the Martyrium of the Apostle, all bear strong testimony to the reliability of the local tradition of Malabar. It is believed that the bones of the Apostle were removed from India to Edessa during the lifetime of the king under whom he suffered martyrdom. According to Cardinal Parecattil, the first Cardinal of the Thomas Christians, the apostolate of St. Thomas in India is "a tradition not written in papyrus, not carved on stone but buried in the hearts of his (St. Thomas) spiritual children from whom it can never be removed." From time immemorial these Christians were called "Thomas Christians". Tradition has it that the Apostle ordained two bishops, Kepha and Paul, respectively for Malabar and Coromandal (Mylapore). This supposedly marks the beginnings of the first hierarchy of India.

Testimonies

The testimonies of Eusebius (early 4th cent.) and St. Jerome (342-420 A.D.) about the mission of Pantaenus, a Christian philosopher sent by bishop Demetrius of Alexandria, "to preach Christ to the Brahmins and to the philosophers of India" in A.D. 190 affirms the tradition. The testimonies of the Fathers of the Church like St. Ephrem (306-373 A.D.), St. Gregory of Nazianze (324-390 A.D.), St. Ambrose (333-397 A.D.), St. Jerome, St. Gregory of Tours (6th cent.) and Isidore of Seville (7th cent.) are also notable. In various ways, they speak about the apostolate of St. Thomas, about the Christians of India, and about the priestly succession there. This is also attested to by several ecclesiastical calendars, martyrologies and other liturgical books of the Coptic, Greek, Latin and Mesopotamian Churches. At the St. Thomas Day celebration in New Delhi on December 18, 1955, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the then President of India, said: "St. Thomas came to India when many of the countries of Europe had not yet become Christian, and so those Indians who trace their Christianity to him have a longer history and a higher ancestry than that of Christians of many of the European countries."

It would be appropriate to cite here an extract from the radio message of Pope Pius XII on 31 December, 1952 on the occasion of the 19th century celebrations of the arrival of the Apostle in India: "Nineteen hundred years have passed since the Apostle came to India [...] During the centuries that India was cut off from the West and despite many trying vicissitudes, the Christian communities formed by the Apostle conserved intact the legacy he left them [...] This apostolic lineage, beloved sons and daughters, is the proud privilege of the many among you who glory in the name of Thomas Christians and we are happy on this occasion to acknowledge and bear witness to it."

This tradition is confirmed by the testimonies of many of the Fathers of the Church. It was not difficult for the Apostle to come to India, because extensive trade relations existed between Malabar and the Mediterranean countries even before the Christian Era. There is nothing to contradict this tradition.

Trade Relationships

Traditions

The following paragraph is taken from the "Catholic Almanac"

Thomas (Didymus): Notable for his initial incredulity regarding the Resurrection and his subsequent forthright confession of the divinity of Christ risen from the dead; according to legend, preached the Gospel in places from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf and eventaully reached India where he was martyred near Madras; Thomas Christians trace their origin to him; in art, is depicted knelling before the risen Christ, or with a carpenter's rule and square; feast, July 3 (Roman Rite), Oct. 6 (Byzantine Rite).

St Thomas the Apostle is often wronged. Whenever his name is heard, one tends to think of a skeptic, a doubter. "He is a doubting Thomas" has become a byword. We have become accustomed, through the centuries, to judge this apostle on the basis of his one sin of disbelief, just as Judas is so often seen only in connection with his betrayal. Peter's denial was as evil as Thomas' doubt, and yet no intelligent person immediately connects the name of Peter exclusively with his sin. Just as there is much more to know about Peter than his denial, so there is much more to know about Thomas than his one doubt. We know that Peter was more than a sinner. And Thomas was more than a sinner. He was an apostle, chosen by the Lord, one of His followers.

For centuries St. Thomas has been represented as the patron and forerunner of all skeptics and doubters and grumblers and fault-finders. Actually, this is a gross and serious injustice to a man whose life was so bitter, and who had to suffer his distress for our sake. For this skepticism and lack of faith in Thomas was not so much an attitude or arrogrance as an exemplification of that ordinary foolishness which God in His mysterious wisdom uses to provoke His creatures to reflect upon the majesty of divine wisdom. St. Thomas' doubt was conceived in sorrow, born in painful hesitation, and grew into a blessing. Before this apostle can be properly judged, one must remember not only that he doubted, but also why his sadness made him hesitate to believe. The generous crown of God's mercy must also be kept in mind.

Thomas, the Doubter

As already indicated, whenever one hears the name of the apostle Thomas mentioned, he probably begins to grow suspicious of him. Twice St. John called Thomas by a surname, "Didymus"-literally, "the twofold one," or freely translated into English, "the twin." One might even try to interpret the meaning of this expression as an indication of a personality at least mildly schizophrenic. But such an opinion would be groundless, and completely incorrect, as any thorough and thoughtful examination of the texts will show. Actually, St John was only explaining Thomas' Aramaic name to the Greek reader of his Gospel: Thomas, that is (in Greek), Didymus, the Twin.

Certain idle legends have spread the gossip that the twin brother of Thomas was Eleazar, or that his twin sister was Lysia. In the spurious "Acts of Thomas" even Christ Himself was put forth as the twin brother of Thomas. Christ and Thomas were supposedly so much alike that they were often mistaken for one another.

Such a ridiculous fable may well have taken root in a tradition of the Church at Edessa. According to this tradition, the proper name of the apostle Thomas was Jude-Jude being an other name for Thomas, that is, Didymus, or the Twin. And this led to a confusion with the apostle Jude, who was known by many titles: Thaddeus, a brother, or cousin, of the Lord. Quite abruptly, then, these legends assumed that this Jude was Thomas, a brother, even a twin brother, of the Lord.

Sacred Scripture has not passed down any information concerning the origin, parents, or early life of Thomas. He was the first one of the Twelve to enter the Gospels practically unnoticed, the leader of the silent, almost mute, apostles. The first seven apostles had been mentioned before their calling, but Thomas' name appears for the first time in the lists of the apostles like a ray of the sun on the edge of a forest, which no one had noticed before. Legend has it that Thomas was an architect. Since the thirteenth century, artists have associated the carpenter's square with this apostle, who has been made the patron of builders. Scripture, nonetheless, suggest that he was a fisherman, not a full-fledged owner of a business, as were Peter and Andrew and the sons of Zebedee, but a helper. This supposition coincides with other statements that Thomas came from a poor family of the tribe of Juda or Issachar.

Perhaps Thomas' restrained and insecure nature resulted from the poverty of his daily life. In the fourth Gospel this apostle appears as an outspokenly melancholic person. St. John, the painter of many true and beautiful portraits, recorded a few very significant words about Thomas in three passages. Despite their brevity these words reveal the whole nature of this man. The Synoptics mentioned only the name of Thomas: Mark and Luke in the eighth place on their lists, and Matthew in the seventh. In the Canon of the Mass and in the Litany of the Saints, and also in the Acts of the Apostles, he is portrayed as an especially important witness of the Resurrection; he is placed before Philip and Bartholomew and Matthew, not after them, as he was in the Gospels.

Although his apostolic companions stood on his right and on his left, Thomas nevertheless remained almost alone and lost in the rank and file of the apostles. When he compared himself with the others-as melancholic persons like to do-he emerged only as their inferior. Had the other apostles assumed any privilege or prerogative he might have rightly claimed as his own?

Peter was the first in authority; John was the first in love. Andrew and James could sun themselves in the distinctions of their respected brothers. Philip had his happy friend Bartholomew, and Bartholomew could rely on Philip. Matthew was a rich and skilled man. James the Less, Jude Thaddeus, and Simon were closely related to the Lord, and certainly they came after Thomas-yet it was only the fine tact of Jesus that made Him appoint these last places to His own relatives. And finally, Judas Iscariot, an unpleasant and sinister character, again and again enjoyed the trust of all, in that he was permitted to carry the money-purse.

St. Thomas alone was without a title. He was the lonesome apostle, the last of all. If one mediates on the passage of the Gospel which conern the apostle Thomas, he will see that these suppositions-they are no more than this-are not without basis, though taken from a wide range of possibilities.

The first appearance of Thomas in the Gospels occurred immediately before the account of the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Jesus had just fled from Jerusalem to escape stoneing and seizure by the Jews. He had gone to Perea. The grieving sisters of Lazarus, Mary and Martha of Bethany, had sent a special messenger to Him to inform Him that their brother lay very ill. To this news our Lord gave the dark and mysterious answer. "'This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that through it the Son of God may be glorified.'" Again it is not always for us to have a clear understanding of the ways of God.

Lazarus was a very close friend of Jesus; but instead of going to him immediately, our Lord "remained two more days in the same place. Then afterwards he said to his disciples. "Let us go again into Judea.'".

The disciples were startled and confused. "'Rabbi, just now the Jews were seeking to stone thee; and dost thou go there again?'" And after Jesus spoke to them about the "sleep" of Lazarus, they stuck to their refusal to understand, the real meaning of that word. They tried to find a plausible reason not to return where they might be notices by the hostile Jews. "'Lord if he sleeps, he will be safe.'" Despite their fear and anxiety and insistence on retaining their safe position, our Lord did not hesitate to fulfill His dangeous mission of mercy. He left no doubt about the "sleep" of Lazarus. "So then Jesus said to them plainly, "Lazarus is dead.'" Then Thomas, the sad and faithful fellow-disciple, spoke out with the bravery of a martyr, "' Let us also go, that we may die with Him.' " Thomas, the apostle full of love and melancholy and courage!

Thomas was already expecting the worst. He was not led on by a consoling illusion, nor did he let himself be deceived, as the others, by palms or hosannas.

He saw the dark storm, the darkest storm, forming on the horizon. When the Lord, despite all the urging and reminding of the disciples, wanted to "go again into Judea," Thomas was not going to let Him go alone. Let us all go and die with Him!

It was certainly not this way with Peter after our Lord's first prediction of His Passion. Peter feared for his Master, and for himself, too; "'Far be it from thee, O Lord; this will never happen to thee"" Thomas' remark was much more serious and realistic, much more mature, like a grain of corn ready to die for a new life, which dips to the ground to return to the place from where it came. In Leonardo Da Vinci's "Last Supper" St. Thomas-the second on the left of Christ-was portrayed fervently assuring the Lord of his faithfulness.

A similarly melancholic thought, spoken by Thomas at the Last Supper, was recorded by the evangelist John. The disciples were very dejected, thinking about

being separated from their Master. Christ went out of His way to comfort them. His first words of solace concerned their reunion in the mercy of the Father.

"Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many mansions. Were it not so, I should have told you, because I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, and I will take you to myself; that where I am, there you also may be."

In order to remind them of His earlier words, and at the same time to entice them to forget the oppressing silence and begin to talk with Him, He immediately added, "'And where I go you know, and the way you know.'"Of all those present at the Last Supper no one questioned the words of the Master. Only Thomas, shaking helplessly, admitted, "'Lord, we do not know where thou are going, and how can we know the way?'" Quite correctly he said "we." For certainly the others had not thoroughly understood the Lord's methods and objectives. Even St. Paul could exclaim, "How unsearchable his ways!" The others, however, did not have the courage to let their inner feelings of insecurity be known before all. Not even the bold Peter spoke up!Thomas, who suffered more painfully than the others in that he could think more deeply than the others, did not hold back his questions. With sincerity and frankness he opened up his melancholic soul to the Lord. Christ, full of compassion for and understanding of the inner torture of one He had called, gave him an answer, which belongs among the most royal of the whole Gospel. He permitted this gloomy speculator a glance into His divine knowledge. The Lord even let him see into the hidden and unknown depths of the Trinity when He answered Thomas:"I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. If you had known me, you would also have known my Father. And henceforth you do know him and you have seen him."For this illuminating glance into the future, eternal life in the Father and the Son, and into the way, Christ, Himself, that leads to his life, we must thank Thomas. It was the tormenting doubt of this apostle and his frank and courageous questions that occasioned our Lord's lesson.

The apostle Thomas suffered a third time, even more painfully than before, in the torment of his doubt right in the middle of all the joy and alleluias of the first Easter week.Thomas had experienced and foreseen the long hours of Good Friday with inexorable clarity, more clearly perhaps than any other apostle except Judas. Both apostles, the melancholy Thomas and the traitorous Judas, knew from the depths of their radically different hearts the fate of the Lord that was so near at hand. But Thomas-and perhaps Judas, too- had a hope hidden in the depths of his heart that the Redeemer could master and change this difficult destiny.

Nevertheless, when the suffering of Christ had run its courses-capture, judgment, crucifixion, death--Thomas was struck by the heavy blow of reality. This

was too much for him. He could not withstand the weight of this burden.Good Friday had made the other apostles waver in their faith. Disbelief was all around them. They could have had a secret hope that Christ would come back to them, but this seemed impossible; they could not convince themselves that there would be a resurrection. The Gospels show that the apostles gave no indication that they had the slightest hope for the Resurrection of Christ. In the end they did not yield to their dreams, but simply to the bare facts.

Christ was crucified. The Messias was gone.After Christ had arisen, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene. "She went and took word to those who had been with him, as they were mourning and weeping. And they, hearing that he was alive and had been seen by her, did not believe it." " ...They were mouring and weeping... and did not believe it." The disciples on the road to Emmaus also were disturbed and sad. When the Lord Himself, on the first evening of Easter, appeared to the gatherered apostles, "they were startled and panic-sticken, and thought that they saw a spirit. And he said to them, 'Why are you disturbed, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?'"

In that hour of His first meeting with all, the Lord offered them the most obvious proof of His identity, which Thomas was soon afterward to demand to see:

"'See my hands and feet, that it is I myself. Feel me and see; for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.'" The sun of that first Easter passed over these men as a night of thunder and wind passes over mountains. The sun was already growing dim below the horizon, but just as it golden ray

linger on show-capped mountains and on the clouds, a scene almost too beautiful to be real, so "they still disbelieved and marvelled for joy..." until "he had eaten in their presence..."

It was the fate of Thomas, and Thomas alone, the one of all the apostles who needed and waited most eagerly for Easter, not be present when the risen Saviour appeared. This first bliss and ecstasy was not meant by God to be his. For Thomas, God had reserved a special meeting, and the apostles's joy and rapture was to be all the greater for it. Here was the same special blessing of the lost sheep and the prodigal son.

"Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, call the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came." Why not? Was it mere chance? "St. John was considerately silent and did not mention why this embarrassed and embittered apostle had left his companions. Too cruelly was his hope shattered and torn from him. He was robbed of his trust. What was Thomas out looking for? When the other apostles in brotherliness and happiness brought to him, lost in his dangerous solitude, the alleluia of their joy and ecstasy-"'We have seen the Lord!'"-Thomas remained bitter. He was not about to take a chance and believe this merely on hearsay. He was determined not to be deceived again. Then, more than ever before, he was a skeptic and pessimist.Moreover, Thomas thought, if the Lord had really risen, why did the Master of all the Twelve appear to all the others, and not to him? Was his not as worthy as the others? Admittedly, he was the last of the Twelve, but nevertheless, was he not one of the Twelve? did our Lord have no concern for Thomas? Did He not have him close at heart, whether the apostle believed or not?

And so Thomas fell to the last place, behind all the others. He was entangled in doubt, provoked by resentment, filled with bitterness. "'Unless I see in his

hands the print of the nails'"-but for three years he had seen; seeing was not enough, was not reliable, was not certain; seeing could deceive-"'and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.'"

Thomas cast a dark shadow over the apostles' Easter joy. What would have happened if a fate similar to the fate of Judas had threatened him? The others tried to remove the dangers of the precipice of disbelief. Peter came and explained a hundred times what Easter meant. He tied to encourage Thomas by confessing his own sin of denial. And Andrew came. And John came. The disciples from Emmaus came, but it was all in vain; Thomas was obstinate. He had laid down his conditions, and he was not about to back down.

Though weary, Thomas stood firm. He could not change. He wanted to be part of that union which Christ Himself had given them, and shared their joy, but he stood off to the side, away from the others, undecided, thinking, confused. Pain is the price of doubt and uncertainty. No one could help Him except the Lord, God Himself. The apostle's salvation hung on the mercy of God.

The feast of the apostle Thomas is celebrated on the shortest day of the year, when the sun gives no warmth and is long hidden behind the dark of morning and quickly swallowed up by the dark of evening. In the soul of Thomas the light was dim and dull; he doubted whether the bright sun of summer would ever rise again.

"'Peace be to you!'" It was the Lord, the Messias, the Redeemer! It was Christ, the Master! His voice rang out through the closed room like the first bells after a silent Holy Week. Thomas could not move or talk; he was suddenly hot and afraid, suddenly sorry that he had ever doubted; but he was full of joy to see what he had not believed. It was the Lord!

It was really and truly the Lord! He alone could enter into closed rooms and closed souls. For the sake of Thomas He had returned to show himself, for He is the Good Shepherd who goes "'after that which is lost, until he finds it.'" And an apostles was so valuable to Christ that he came back to make Himself manifest just for one. Already He had led Peter away from his sin and back to Himself. And Thomas meant just as much to Christ as Peter. The risen Savior

lifted His apostle out of doubt and resentment, and took him back into His joy and peace. "'Peace be to you!'"Word for word the resurrected Christ took up Thomas' conditional obtinacy: "'Bring here thy finger, and see my hands; and bring here thy hand, and put it into my side.'" The Lord's rebuke was like a fragrant balm. ""'And be not unbelieving, but believing'"-fidelis, true and faithful, as the Latin and Greek texts more profoundly say it.

The sudden silence in the room seem endless. It seemed as if Jesus and Thomas were there alone. Never have divine reality and human doubt been so close, face to face, as here. Thomas, the poor ambassador of doubt, was to see and comprehend the pacification of all doubters. He saw the glorious body of the risen

Christ, and the red stains of His wounds in His hands. He saw the wound of His side, the opening to the heart of God. He saw the pierced heart like a glittering ruby gleaming through the precious wound. This was enough. The sharp pain and joy that suddenly pierced his own heart removed the necessity that he should first touch, then believe, what he saw. he could no longer doubt. He believed.

Besieged by the tangible reality of the Lord, and even more by the love of the Lord, which is the highest form of spiritual reality, Thomas fell to his knees. He sobbed. He opened his soul to his risen Master, and poured forth all his unspoken laments, unasked questions, pent-up feelings, and silenced desires."'My Lord and my God!;'"

My Lord and my God!

Thomas could say no more, No one of the other apostles had ever called the Lord "God" with such significance. Not one had ever confessed Him to be God so fully and openly, not even Peter in Caesarea Philippi. The doubting and suffering Thomas was the first of all to see the divinity of Christ. Even on Mount Tabor the privileged apostles had not so fully comprehended their glimpse of the beatific vision. Ironically it was the doubting apostle whose joy of Easter was finally the greatest. It was his poor and sinful soul, so full of the need of God's love, that led him to his Lord and God.

The evangelist John closed his Gospel with the account of Jesus' manifestation to Thomas. What John recorded after this in the twenty-first chapter-the manifestation of Jesus to His apostles at the Sea of Tiberias-is only a supplement, an after-thought. The last words of Jesus to Thomas ring out as a powerful Amen, summarizing the entire Gospel for the thousands of years of faith and belief that follow "'Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed.

Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed.'"

This not seeing and yet believing is the grace of God. In his Epistle, St Peter marveled at this open miracle:Him [Jesus Christ], though you have not seen, you love. In him, though you do not see him, yet believing, you exult with a joy unspeakable and triumphant; receiving, as the final issue of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

For the strengthening of all who believe, whether they see or not, Thomas was called to be an apostle-he who believed only because he had seen. It was the Divine Providence, not mere chance, that this one apostle was not present with the others on that first Easter evening. His doubt was intended either as a hindrance or as a solution to our doubts. In his uncertainty our uncertainties are to be wiped away. Obstinately he persisted in his unhappy doubt so that we

might be happy in our grace of belief. So we are obliged to thank the unbelieving Thomas. For our sake did he suffer his doubt, one of the most excruciating torments of the soul. Through this apostle we can see, without doubt, without uncertitude, how Christ's wounds are our salvation.

Truly Thomas was a Didymus, a Twin, for with his confession of God, his profession of faith, we were born.It is rather ironical that the liturgy on December 21, only a few dayss before Christmas, places St. Thomas, the gloomy ponderer, before the crib of the Child of Bethlehem. Here, before the divine Child, the apostle Thomas, speaking through the sages for people with sad and troubled hearts, prays his child like prayer: "'My Lord and my God!'"

Thomas, the Apostle

In Holy Scripture there are recorded no further accounts of the apostle Thomas. Tradition has passed down no Epistle that he might have written. But could Thomas have departed from the New Testament more beautifully than with his confession to the Lord and God, Jesus Christ? Tradition strongly favors the East, the land of the rising sun, as the place of his apostolic labors. In Syrian and Armenian legends he appears as the leading apostle in the Orient. Older accounts, dating back to the time of Origen (d. 253), speak of the apostolic works of Thomas among the Parthians. The Medes, Persians, Hyrcanians, and the Bactrians also were named. Today this comprises the districts of Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Baluchistan.Since the middle of the fourth century, even Catholic commentators have followed more recent legends, according to which Thomas pressed on even farther, into the missonary field that today is India. This is not incompatible with the older traditions. In India the opinion has never lost ground, and is prevalent today, that Thomas passed through the "streets of silk," that is, through Persia and Tibet. Approximately in these same years many Jewish-Christians, refugees, were entering Cochin by way of the sea. Here Thomas labored until he later left for Travancore.An old Syrian tradition named St. Thomas as "the guide and teacher of the Church in India, which he founded and headed." The so-called "Thomas-Christians," who maintained themselves up to our own age on the coast of Malabar-in 1937 seven hundred thousand of these faithful reunited with Rome-claim the apostle Thomas as their spiritual father. However, not all critical studies consider it certain that Thomas labored in India."The accounts, teeming with miracles, of Thomas' apostolic labors, are uncertain and, for the most part, purely fantastic. Few apostles have been so heavily burdened with such imaginative legends as the unbelieving Thomas. All these legends were certainly much influenced by the apocryphal "Acts of Thomas," which were composed in the first half of the third century, in Gnostic circles, probably in Edessa, and which were soon reworked by the Catholic Syrians and Greeks. Briefly its content was this:

As the apostles separated to go to all parts of the world, Thomas was assigned, by lot, to India. But this apostle, timid, nervous, distressed, refused to go there. Then he was bought as a slave from the Lord Himself by the Indian merchant, Abbanes, who was looking for an architect, according to the instructions of his king, Gundaphar. (There actually was as Indian King Gundaphar who reigned somethime between the year 20 A.D. and 50 A.D., as attested to by inscriptions on the coins of that period.) On the trip to India with Abbanes, Thomas was silent.The king immediately placed a great trust in this stranger, an "architect." He put at his disposal great wealth for the planning and building of the royal palace. But Thomas donated the entire sum set aside for this construction to the poor on the basis that by this course of action he had built a great palace in heaven for the king. To the furious soverign his deceased brother appeared and testified to the reality and glory of the heavenly palace built by Thomas.

Life was then miraculously restored to the brother of the king, and the two were immediately converted and baptized by the apostle Thomas.This legend continues: Thomas went farther, into the neighboring kingdom. There he persuaded the ever-increasing number of wives in the royal household to turn to abstinence and temperance instead of to married life. (This misogamy is typically Gnostic, a characteristic frequently noticeable in the "Acts of Thomas.") King Mazdai, therefore, had him speared by four soldiers. Even today this manner of death is a constitutional punishment in Siam for the political crime. Tradition named "Calamina" as the place of death, a place, however, that certainly is not proven. It is possible that it has some connection with the large "Thomas Mountain" near Mailapur, the alleged place of death, upon which a church in honor of St. Thomas was built in 1547. On the altar there is found the stone cross of Thomas with inscriptions dating from the sixth to the eighth centuries.

In all legends concerning St. Thomas, it is difficult to separate truth from fiction. The Gnostic Heracleon, in the middle of the second century, asserted that Thomas died of a natural death. For centuries the Church in Edessa has been boasting of his grave, which in a sermon by St. John Chrysostom was numbered among the four known graces of apostles. Indian legends tried to justify this claim by maintaining that the relices of this apostle were taken to Edessa in the third century. Then they were reported to have been taken, in the year 1258, from Edessa to Chios, a Greek island. And later they were moved to Ortona, where they are still honored today.

Various writings have also been attributed to the apostle Thomas, all of which, however, are supurious. A "Gospel of Thomas," which originated in Gnostic circles, has been lost. However, it seems that fragments of this work have found their way into another "Gospel of Thomas," which is preserved today, a rather large collection of babblings about the childhood of Jesus. For example, the Child Jesus is portrayed at play on the Sabbath, forming little birds from clay; and when a Jew complain to Joseph that the sacred Sabbath was being broken by this action, the divine Child clapped His hands and the clay birds quickly flew away. The value of these and similar fictitious tales can be seen in the serious approach Matthew and Luke took in their Gospels when they wrote of the infancy and childhood of Jesus.

Another work that supposedly goes back to St. Thomas is a spurious "Apocalypse." This originated under the title "Epistle of Our Lord Jesus Christ to the Disciple Thomas." This writing was condemned as early as the end of the fifth century by Pope Gelasius I. It picked out at random bits of gossip and rumors of the terrors and horrors of the last seven of the thirty days of darkness before the Last Judgment.

This apostle has also been connected with the legendary "Epistle of the Lord to King Abgar of Edessa." Supposedly Thomas himself wrote this epistle at the explicity command of Jesus. Then, after the Ascension of Christ, he sent Thaddeus, one of the seventy-two disciples to Abgar in order to cure this ruler of a serious illness.

The true words of the Gospels concerning the apostle Thomas present a more reliable basis for a description of the apostolic works of this laborer for Christ than the artificial apocryphal writings. There are those modern fanatics who have not hesitated to speak their thoughts: Thomas was not qualified for life,or his life was hardly worth living. What could such a melancholic person do for mankind, who only made life miserable for himself and for others? But going

beyond the surface, we can clearly retort: how great and abundant the works of such men, if only a good, kind, and patient hand helps them over their crises!

After that miracle of divine mercy on the second evening after Easter Sunday, Thomas was at long last free from the burden of his own self; thereafter, he belonged only to his Master, the Lord. Then he bore the burden of gratitude, such a great and heartfelt gratitude that it continues into eternity. He is indebted to the mercy of God for remaining an apostle instead of becoming an apostate.

Just as the compassion of the Lord was a thorn for Paul, the wounded persecutor, so it was for Thomas, the hurt skeptic. It is deeply symbolic that, according to history or legend, these two apostles worked on the most distant lands, Thomas on the borders of the Orient, India, and Paul on the borders of the Occident, Spain. Their burning and urgent love for Christ drove both of them farther and farther, for theirs was a thirst for souls that could not be quenched until it reached the edges of the sea.

The apostolic preaching of Thomas was certainly mild, indulgent, almost mellow, like the clear, joyful ring of a bell which had been cast and molded with much silver after being painfully proceed over a flaming heat. From his own experience Thomas knew of the fruitless ways of the hearts of men. In an essay by an Oriental father of the Church concerning the judgment in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, the Lord speaks to Thomas and kindly admonishes him.

Here Jesus spoke aloud what Thomas had spoken again and again in the silent depths of his heart. This apostle, knowing the full meaning of pity, had suffered too much not to be able to understand others whose hearts had been torn apart. But was it merely an understanding? Thomas, tormented by doubt, over whom, nevertheless, the glorious sun of Easter had risen and shone with a special splendor, was able not only to understand human sadness, but also to transfigure it into heavenly bliss.

Of the twelve articles in the Apostles' Creed, legend has symbolically attributed to Thmas this one: "He descended into hell, and on the third day He arose again from the dead." Not melancholy or mere compassion did he have to spread, but also a glorious alleluia, the alleluia that he had drawn from the heart of the Lord, as from a fresh spring, with his own squivering hand.The heart of the Lord glows with love. The evangelists noted how closely two of the apostles relied on the heart of the Lord: John and Thomas, the beloved apostle and the unbelieving apostle. It would seem as if the suffering doubter would have penetrated the depths of his returned Master's heart much deeper than the disciple whom Jesus loved. It would seem as if the doubter's great torment and need of love would have pressed him even deeper into that comforting heart. A beautiful legend has passed down the saying that the hand of Thomas which was placed into the side of the risen Savior remained red with the stain of blood for the rest of the apostles's life. Never was he able to forget the sight of that wound. It remained red before his eyes; he could not forget ; he could not doubt.

Rubens created a moving portrait of Thomas. A weary and gentle countenance looks down on anyone who looks up to him. His face is thin with pain. It is wrinkled from doubt and thought and care. His eyes are tired from the many sleepless nights he spent and the many tears he wept. But through all of this the joy of seeing the risen Savior appears. The way, which was once so dark and gloomy, was again illuminated by the splendor of the glory and joy of his returned Master. Then did eternal goal become clear.

What a beautiful picture of Thomas! His belief was restored, his struggle conquered. His way was enlightened, and his goal came closer and closer into view.

He could see the wound in the side of the Lord and the wounds in His hands; he could see the heart of the Lord where all rest and unrest meet.

This was St Thomas the apostle, who accepted a special grace and turned his doubting into his salvation.The information below is minimal because nothing certain is known of St Thomas except a few words about him in the Gospels.St Thomas' words are perhaps the most beautiful ever said by a mortal: "My Lord and My God!" Thomas' eyes didn't tell him that Jesus was God; it was his faith. Thomas uttered this famous statement of faith when Christ showed him His wounds and asked him to touch Him. This event took place a week or two after the resurrection. That is when Thomas cried out in awe or disbelief as if it were too good to be true. He certainly didn't comprehend what he was saying. It was a profound pouring out of his heart to a Man standing before him who he knew had been crucified about fourteen days ago.

When we see something that is spectacular and incredible, we gasp and exclaim from the heart more than from the head. This living Man was Almighty God and

Thomas' whole life experiences could not understand how it could happen. But it was real, so real, that he would spend his whole life living that belief in many thousands of ways until he finally died for it and became a martyr.

There are many positive facts to say about St Thomas that makes the 'doubting Thomas', that he is so much noted for, seems almost insignificant. Who has not doubted Christ either explicitly or inexplicitly? Who has not sinned as perhaps Thomas?

The Apostles were huddled together, except Thomas, the first time that Christ appeared to the Apostles after the resurrection. Why? They were afraid and completely unnerved. They were very scared that what happen to the Leader could happen to them. The Romans didn't fool around when they wanted someone out of the way. The Apostles also knew that it was Caiphas and the ruling priests that didn't want anyone associated with Christ or what he preached. Perhaps the Apostles were wondering who was going to be eliminated next? Afterall, they were Jesus' followers. If they killed the disciples' Leader, what would prevent them from coming after them? Both groups, the Romans and/or the ruling religious priests didn't want anyone stirring up trouble and both groups felt Christ infringed on their power. We remembered how Herod had attemped to killed the Infant Jesus because the Messiah might draw some of Herod's power to Himself.Anyhow, the Apostles remained locked up and hidden because they wanted the best possible security. Their Leader was gone and so was their confidence.

Together they could support and protect each other and they were not alone.On the other hand, Thomas wasn't afraid and certainly not hiding nor seeking the solace of the other disciples. He was aloof, alone and perhaps unafraid to venture out and be bold and brave. Thomas was a realist and knew that dangers and death catches up with everyone. He had previously offered to die for Christ at an earlier time when Christ was alive. Now that Christ was not present, it didn't make any difference to him. If we read the gospel we find that Thomas was unafraid to die for Christ.

Another incredible testament to Thomas' real faith and sincerity was when he openly said (John 11:16) to the other Apostles near him: "Let us also go to die with him." The occasion was when Jesus proposed to go to Bethany after Lazarus had died. Since Bethany was near Jerusalem, this meant walking into the very midst of his enemies and to almost certain death.

Because of the experience of Thomas when the Lord appeared to him the first time after the resurrection, Jesus tells us today: "Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed". We think Thomas was blessed because he saw the risen Christ but no, Christ tells us that we are more blessed because we are unable to see the risen Christ but have a far deeper contact and intimacy with Him through the gift of faith especially when we practice it daily. Jesus is

saying: seeing with our eyes doesn't lead to faith. Believing with our hearts and seeing with the eyes of our souls leads to faith.

We know more about the life of Thomas after Calvary than we do about any of the other apostles except for Peter and John from their inclusion in the "Acts of

the Apostles". Ruffin informs us that Thomas' ministry takes place almost entirely outside of the Roman Empire and nearly all our sources about him are non-

Western including: Osroene, Armenia, Iran, India and Southwest Asia.

The synoptic gospel writers mentioned Thomas only as one of the Twelve.

St John relates four incidents two of which I have already stated. One of the other mention of Thomas is his reply to Jesus taken from St John's gospel from

14:1-4. Jesus told the Apostles: "You know the road that leads where I go." Thomas asked: "Lord we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?"

From this question of St Thomas comes one of the most often quoted statment of Jesus Christ: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one comes to the Father but through me". (Jn.14:6) Thousands of books have been written on the "Way" "Truth" and "Life". In this reply to Thomas, Jesus reveals the life of the Father and indirectly the life of the Spirit who Jesus would send and leads us to the Father after his ascension to Heaven.

Jesus reveals the noble and majestic Trinitarian Life of God because of Thomas' question. Jesus tells us that the only way to the Father is through Him.

Afterall, who could possible know more about the Father than He who sent Jesus to us to be our Redeemer and Savior? Jesus as Redeemer and Savior followed the way of the cross. The cross surrounded Him from His birth and never stopped pursuing Him everywhere when He was in the public eye. His thirty years living in the shadow of Joseph and Mary helped him to prepared for those 3 years running and hiding because of his radical message and challenges.

When Pilate asked Jesus: What is truth? it was a rhetorical question and he probably didn't believe Jesus when He said He was the Truth. When Jesus said that

He was the Life, He was referring to the life of God within Him or the Holy Spirit who He would send when He went to the Father after the Ascension. The

solemn feast of the Trinity is a great solemnity celebrated on June 15th, in the year 2003, the same day as Father's Day.

The final time that Thomas is mentioned in the gospel is during a fishing expedition and Thomas' name is mentioned and we learn nothing of his personality

from this incident after the resurrection.

Many would attest that Thomas had one of the most active ministries of any of the Twelve. Again, C. Bernard Ruffin in his book "The Twelve" says that Eusebius wrote that almost immediately after Pentecost, Thomas was instrumental in evangelizing many of Osroene, which lay to the north of Palestine, in what is now eartern Turkey, between the Roman and Iaranian Empires.

The earliest source for knowledge of Thomas' ministry in India is a Syriac document, probably written in Edessa around A.D. 200, known as the "Acts of Thomas" however, the Church doesn't accept it although it is based on historical fact. According to Ruffin, when merchants and missionaries from Portugal arrived in India in the sixteenth century, they were astonished to find a flourishing community of Christians who steadfastly maintained that their Church, the Church of Malabar, had been founded in the first century by St Thomas. Some scholars scoff at these traditons. Christianity in India, they say, dates only from the fourth century, when missionaries arrived in Syria.The entire next paragraph is taken from the "Twelve" and I quote:"In A.D. 69, Thomas settled permanently in Mylapore. He was by then at least in his sixties and getting too old for extensive travel under rugged and primitive conditions. Allowing for some exaggeration in the Rabban Song and other sources, the apostle conducted a ministry similar to Paul's, with extensive travel and many miraculous occurences. Even the Hindus considered him a "holy man." According to "The Acts of Thomas": "The apostle (St Thomas) was very much like Bartholomew and James the Righteous, given to fasting and long periods of prayer. He is said to have eaten only bread and water and never to have owned more than one garment at one time. This leads one to speculate that he too had once been a disciple of the Baptist".

According to the traditions of the "St Thomas Christians" of Malabar: "Thomas forbade any sort of pictures or images, but decorated his houses of worship with the symbol of the cross. This is interesting in light of the fact that the cross did not emerge as a religious symbol in the Roman Empire until the fourth century, after the Emperor Constantine abolished it as a means of execution."

According to most Indian traditions, Thomas died of stab wounds on July 3, A.D. 72. The Brahman priests of Mylapore feared that Christianity would eclipse Hinduism. They were absolutley correct.

Based upon a 1992 Graphics by CNS if the world were a village of 1,000 people, there would be only 131 Hindus. Christians would number 329, Muslims, 174 and the Buddhists would have 61. Christianity totals about 1/3 of the world's population. Jesus continue to tell us: Go out to all the world and tell the Good News. Living out and practicing our faith is far more important than anything in the whole world both for ourselves and others if we are going to have an impact in helping others to know Jesus as St Thomas did. Each person, in their own unique manner, can proclaim Christ by their love that they share in prayer and action for others.

It was reported that several Brahman priests found St Thomas praying in a cave near his home and wounded him with a spear. The apostle dragged himself out of the cave, struggled some distance to a nearby chapel and in the presence of several of his disciples, grasped a stone cross. According to an account noted by Marco Polo, Thomas prayed, "Lord, I thank Thee for all Thy mercies. Into Thy hands I commend my spirit," and entered into rest. So closed the remarkable career of a remarkable man, a man who should be remembered not for being a "doubter", but for his faith and zeal.

One of the great marvels about St Thomas the Apostle is taken from Joan Cruz's book entitled Mysteries, Marvels and Miracles in the Lives of the Saints .

Cruz list only two Apostles and the other one is St Andrew and the mystery of the manna already cited under that Apostle.

After Pentecost, St Thomas the Apostle (d. circa 72)is known to have traveled extensively in spreading the Faith, and to have eventually made his way to India. It is believed that he died eight miles outside of Madras, near the shore of the Bay of Bengal, by being pierced by the sword of a pagan. Located on the spot of execution is a stone engraved with a cross that was seen to ooze blood on December 18, 1558, and to have continued on that day each year with

various interruptions until the year 1704.

The phenomenon first took place during the offering of Holy Mass and lasted four hours. Diocesan officials certified that at the end of the bleedings the stone turned a glistening white before returning to its original black.

Authors thinks that Thomas, who suffered more painfully than the other Apostles in that he could think more deeply than the others, did not hold back his question to Christ. With sincerity and frankness he opened up his melancholic soul to the Lord.

Testimonies

The testimonies of Eusebius (early 4th cent.) and St. Jerome (342-420 A.D.) about the mission of Pantaenus, a Christian philosopher sent by bishop Demetrius

of Alexandria, "to preach Christ to the Brahmins and to the philosophers of India" in A.D. 190 affirms the tradition. The testimonies of the Fathers of the Church like St. Ephrem (306-373 A.D.), St. Gregory of Nazianze (324-390 A.D.), St. Ambrose (333-397 A.D.), St. Jerome, St. Gregory of Tours (6th cent.) and Isidore of Seville (7th cent.) are also notable. In various ways, they speak about the apostolate of St. Thomas, about the Christians of India, and about the priestly succession there. This is also attested to by several ecclesiastical calendars, martyrologies and other liturgical books of the Coptic, Greek, Latin and Mesopotamian Churches.

52 AD

52 AD - Kodungallur with a number of churches and shrines is where St Thomas the Apostle first landed in India in 52 AD.While Chennamangalam was a former Jewish colony, Guruvayoor is home to the renowned Sri Krishna temple.The St Thomas Church at Malayottur attracts devotees in large numbers every year.

52 AD - Before Kochi became one of the most important harbours of India, Kodungaloor, 32 kms away, occupied that pedestal. It is said to be the same Muziris where the apostle St Thomas landed in AD 52.

72 AD

72 AD - Near the international airport in Chennai (formerly known as Madras) is the small hillock where the apostle St Thomas, the noble missionary and one of the principal diciples of Lord Jesus was assasinated way back in 72 AD.

Their early traditions and their connection with the apostle St. Thomas

Interest in the history of these Christians arises from more than one feature. Their ancient descent at once attracts attention. Theophilus (surnamed the Indian) — an Arian, sent by Emperor Constantius (about 354) on a mission to Arabia Felix and Abyssinia — is one of the earliest, if not the first, who draws our attention to them. He had been sent when very young a hostage a Divoeis, by the inhabitants of the Maldives, to the Romans in the reign of Constantine the Great. His travels are recorded by Philostorgius, an Arian Greek Church historian, who relates that Theophilus, after fulfilling his mission to the Homerites, sailed to his island home. Thence he visited other parts of India, reforming many things — for the Christians of the place heard the reading of the Gospel in a sitting, etc. This reference to a body of Christians with church, priest, liturgy, in the immediate vicinity of the Maldives, can only apply to a Christian Church and faithful on the adjacent coast of India, and not to Ceylon, which was well known even then under its own designation, Taprobane. The people referred to were the Christians known as a body who had their liturgy in the Syriac language and inhabited the west coast of India, i.e. Malabar. This Church is next mentioned and located by Cosmas Indicopleustes (about 535) "in Male (Malabar) where the pepper grows"; and he adds that the Christians of Ceylon, whom he specifies as Persians, and "those of Malabar" (the latter he leaves unspecified, so they must have been natives of the country) had a bishop residing at Caliana (Kalyan), ordained in Persia, and one likewise on the island of Socotra.

The apostle's tomb at Mylapur

St. Gregory of Tours (Glor. Mart.), before 590, reports that Theodore, a pilgrim who had gone to Gaul, told him that in that part of India where the corpus (bones) of Thomas the Apostle had first rested (Mylapur on the east or the Coromandel Coast of India) there stood a monastery and a church of striking dimensions and elaboratedly adorned, adding: "After a long interval of time these remains had been removed thence to the city of Edessa." The location of the first tomb of the Apostle in India is proof both of his martyrdom and of its Apostolate in India. The evidence of Theodore is that of an eyewitness who had visited both tombs — the first in India, while the second was at Edessa. The primitive Christians, therefore, found on both coasts, east and west, witness to and locate the tomb at Mylapur, "St. Thomas", a little to the south of Madras; no other place in India lays any claim to possess the tomb, nor does any other country. On these facts is based their claim to be known as St. Thomas Christians.

This upheld by the Edessan Church

Further proof may be adduced to justify this claim. A Syrian ecclesiastical calender of an early date confirms the above. In the quotation given below two points are to be noted which support its antiquity — the fact of the name given to Edessa and the fact the memory of the translation of the Apostle's relics was so fresh to the writer that the name of the individual who had brought them was yet remembered. The entry reads: "3 July, St. Thomas who was pierced with a lance in India. His body is at Urhai [the ancient name of Edessa] having been brought there by the merchant Khabin. A great festival." It is only natural to expect that we should receive from Edessa first-hand evidence of the removal of the relics to that city; and we are not disappointed, for St. Ephraem, the great doctor of the Syrian Church, has left us ample details in his writings. Ephraem came to Edessa on the surrender of Nisibis to the Persians, and he lived there from 363 to 373, when he died. This proof is found mostly in his rhythmical compositions. In the forty-second of his "Carmina Nisibina" he tells us the Apostle was put to death in India, and that his remains were subsequently buried in Edessa, brought there by a merchant. But his name is never given; at that date the name had dropped out of popular memory. The same is repeated in varying form in several of his hymns edited by Lamy (Ephr. Hymni et Sermones, IV). "It was to a land of dark people he was sent, to clothe them by Baptism in white robes. His grateful dawn dispelled India's painful darkness.

It was his mission to espouse India to the One-Begotten. The merchant is blessed for having so great a treasure. Edessa thus became the blessed city by possessing the greatest pearl India could yield. Thomas works miracles in India, and at Edessa Thomas is destined to baptize peoples perverse and steeped in darkness, and that in the land of India."For their earliest period they possess no written but a traditional history. These Christians have no written records of the incidents of their social life from the time of their conversion down to the arrival of the Portuguese on the coast, just as India had no history until the arrival of the Mohammedans. Record of these traditions embodied in a manuscript statement dated 1604

Fortunately the British Museum has a large collection consisting of several folio volumes containing manuscripts, letters, reports, etc., of Jesuit missions in India and elsewhere; among these in additional volume 9853, beginning with the leaf 86 in pencil and 525 in ink, there is a "Report" on the "Serra" (the name by which the Portuguese designated Malabar), written in Portuguese by a Jesuit missionary, bearing the date 1604 but not signed by the writer; there is

evidence that this "Report" was known to F. de Souza, author of the "Oriente Conquistado", and utilized by him. The writer has carefully put together the traditional record of these Christians; the document is yet unpublished, hence its importance. Extracts from the same, covering what can be said of the early part of this history, will offer the best guarantee that can be offered. The writer of the "Report" distinctly informs us that these Christians had no written records of ancient history, but relied entirely on traditions handed down by their elders, and to these they were most tenaciously attached.

Of their earliest period tradition records that after the death of the Apostle his disciples remained faithful for a long time, the Faith was propagated with great zeal, and the Church increased considerably. But later, wars and famine supervening, the St. Thomas Christians of Mylapur got scattered and sought refuge elsewhere, and many of them returned to paganism. The Christians, however, who were on the Cochin side, fared better than the former, spreading from Coulac (Quilon) to Palur (Paleur), a village in the north of Malabar. These had fared better, as they lived under native princes who rarely interfered with their Faith, and they probably never suffered real persecution such as befell their brethren on the other coast; besides, one of the paramount rajahs of Malabar, Cheruman Perumal, had conferred on them a civil status. The common tradition in the country holds that from the time of the Apostle seven churches were erected in different parts of the country, besides the one which the Apostle himself had erected at Mylapur. This tradition is most tenaciously held and is confirmed by the "Report". It further asserts that the Apostle Thomas, after preaching to the inhabitants of the Island of Socotra and establishing there a Christian community, had come over to Malabar and landed at the ancient port of Cranganore. They hold that after preaching in Malabar the Apostle went over to Mylapur on the Coromandel Coast; this is practicable through any of the many paths across the dividing mountain ranges which were well known and much frequented in olden times. The Socotrians had yet retained their Faith when in 1542 St. Francis visited them on his way to India. In a letter of 18 September of the same year, addressed to the Society at Rome, he has left an interesting account of the degenerate state of the Christians he found there, who were Nestorians. He also tells us they render special honours to the Apostle St. Thomas, claiming to be descendants of the Christians begotten to Jesus Christ by that Apostle. By 1680 when the Carmelite Vincenzo Maria di Santa Catarina landed there he found Christanity quite extinct, only faint traces yet lingering.

The extinction of this primitive Christanity is due to the oppression of the Arabs, who now form the main population of the island, and to the scandalous neglect of the Nestorian Patriarchs who in former times were wont to supply the bishop and clergy for the island. When St. Francis visited the island a Nestorian priest was still in charge.

The Syrian merchant Thomas Cana arrives in Malabar

There is one incident of the long period of isolation of the St. Thomas Christians from the rest of the Christian world which they are never tired of relating, and it is one of considerable importance to them for the civil status it conferred and secured to them in the country. This is the narrative of the arrival of a Syrian merchant on their shores, a certain Mar Thoma Cana — the Portuguese have named him Cananeo and styled him an Armenian, which he was not.

He arrived by ship on the coast and entered the port of Cranganore. The King of Malabar, Cheruman Perumal, was in the vicinity, and receiving information of his arrival sent for him and admitted him to his presence. Thomas was a wealthy merchant who had probably come to trade; the King took a liking to this man, and when he expressed a wish to acquire land and make a settlement the King readily acceded to his request and let him purchase land, then unoccupied, at Cranganore. Under the king's orders Thomas soon collected a number of Christians from the surrounding country, which enabled him to start a town on the ground marked out for his occupation. He is said to have collected seventy-two Christian families (this is the traditional number always mentioned) and to have installed them in as many separate houses erected for them; attach to each dwelling was a sufficient piece of land for vegetable cultivation for the support of the family as is the custom of the country. He also erected a dwelling for himself and eventually a church. The authorization to possess the land

and dwellings erected was granted to Thomas by a deed of paramount Lord and Rajah of Malabar, Cheruman Perumal, said to have been the last of the line, the country having been subsequently divided among his feudatories. (The details given above as well as what follows of the copper plate grant are taken from the "Report".) The same accord also speak of several privileges and honours by the king to Thomas himself, his descendants, and to the Thomas Christians, by which the latter community obtained status above the lower classes, and which made them equal to the Nayars, the middle class in the country.

The deed read as follows:

May Cocurangon [personal name of the king] be prosperous, enjoy a long life and live 100,000 years, divine servant of the gods, strong, true, just, full of deeds, reasonable, powerful over the whole earth, happy, conquering, glorious, rightly prosperous in the service of the gods, in Malabar, in the city of the Mahadeva [the great idol of the temple in the vicinity of Cranganore] reigning in the year of Mercury on the seventh day [Portuguese text: elle no tepo de Mercurio de feu to no dia, etc.] of the mouth of March before the full moon the same king Cocurangon being in Carnallur there landed Thomas Cana, a chief man who arrived in a ship wishing to see the farthest parts of the East. And some men seeing how he arrived informed the king. The king himself came and saw and sent for the chief man Thomas, and he disembarked and came before the king, who spoke graciously to him. To honour him he gave him his name, styling him Cocurangon Cana, and he went to rest in his place, and the king gave him the city of Mogoderpatanam, (Cranganore) for ever. And the same king being in his great prosperity went one day to hunt in the forest, and he hastily sent for Thomas, who came and stood before the king in a propitious hour, and the king consulted the astrologer. And afterwards the king spoke to Thomas that he should build a town in that forest, and he made reverence and answered the king: I require this forest for myself', and the king granted it to him for ever. And forthwith another day he cleared the forest and he cast his eyes upon it in the same year on the eleventh of April, and in a propetious time gave it to Thomas for a heritage in the name of the king, who laid the first stone of the church and the house of Thomas Cana, and he built there a town for all, and entered the church and prayed there on the same day. After these things Thomas himself went to the feet of the king and offered his gifts, and this he asked the king to give that land to him and his descendants; and he measured out two hundred and sixty-four elephant cubits and gave them to Thomas and his descendants for ever, and jointly sixty-two houses which immediately erected there, and gardens with their enclosures and paths and boundaries and inner yards. And he granted seven kinds of musical instruments and all honours and the right of travelling in a palanquin, and he conferred on him dignity and the privilege of spreading carpets on the ground and the use of sandals, and to erect a pavilion at his gate and ride on elephants, and also granted five taxes to Thomas and his companions, both men and women, for all his relations and to the

followers of his law for ever.

The said king gave his name and these princes witnessed it...

Then follow the names of eight witnesses, and a note is added by the Portuguese translator that this is the document by which the Emperor of all Malabar gave the land of Cranganore to Thomas Cana and also to Christians of St. Thomas. This document, transcribed from the manuscript "Report", has been carefully translated into English, as it forms the "Great Charter" of the St. Thomas Christians. The "Report" adds: "and because at that time they reckoned the era in cycles of twelve years according to the course, therefore they say in the Olla [Malayalam term for a document written on palm leaf] that the said settlement was founded in the year of the mercury... that mode of reckoning is totally forgotten, for the last seven hundred and seventy-nine years in all this Malabar time has been reckoned by the Quilon era. However, since the said Perumal, as we have said above, died more than a thousand and two hundred years, it follows: that same number of years have elapsed since the Church and Christians were established at Cranganore." The writer of the "Report" had previously stated "it is one thousand and two hundred and fifty and eight years since Perumal, as we have said above, died on the first of March". Deducing the date of the "Report" this would give A.D. 346 for his death. Diego de Couto (Decada XII), quoting the above grant in full, says that the Syrian Christians fix A.D. 811 as corresponding to the date borne on the grant; the first is far too early, and the second is an approximately probable date. The "Report" informs us that the copper plates on which this deed or grant was inscribed were taken away to Portugal by Franciscan Fathers, who left behind a translation of the same. It is known that the Syrian Bishop of Malabar, Mar Jacob, had deposited with the Factor of Cochin all the Syrian copper grants for safe custody; providing however that when necessary access could be had to the same. Gouvea at p. 4 of his "Jornada" says that after having remained there for some long time they could not be found and were lost through some carelessness; de Couto asserts the same in the passage quoted above and also elsewhere. In 1806 at the suggestion of Rev. Claude Buchanan, Colonel Macauly, the British resident, ordered a careful search for them and they turned up in the record room of Cochin town. The tables then contained (1) the grant to Irani Cortton of Cranganore, and (2) the set of plates of the grant to Maruvan Sopi Iso of Quilon, but those of the grant to Thomas Cana were not among them; had they not been removed they would have been found with other plates; this confirms the statement of the writer of the "Report" that they had been taken to Portugal. From what is stated in the royal deed to Thomas Cana it may be taken for granted that the latter brought with him a small colony of Syrians from Mesopotamia, for the privileges conceded include his companions, both men and women, and all his relations.

The arrival also of two pious brothers, church-builders

Besides the arrival of Thomas Cana and his colony, by which the early Christians benefited considerably, the "Report" also records the arrival on this coast of two individuals named Soper Iso and Prodho; they are said to have been brothers and are supposed to have been Syrians. The "Report" gives the following details; they came to possess a promontory opposite Paliport on the north side, which is called Maliankara, and they entered the port with a large load of timber to build a church; and in the Chaldean books of this Serra there is no mention of them, except that they were brothers, came to Quilon, built a church there, and worked some miracles. After death they were buried in the church they had erected; it is said that they had built other smaller churches in the country; they were regarded as pious men and were later called saints, their own church was eventually dedicated to them as well as others in the country.

Archbishop Alexis Menezes afterwards changed the dedication of these churches to other saints in the Roman calender. There is one important item that the "Report" has preserved: "the said brothers built the church of Quilon in the hundredth year after the foundation of Quilon." (This era commences from 25 August, A.D. 825, and the date will thus be A.D. 925). The second of the aforesaid copper-plates mention Meruvan Sober Iso, one of the above brothers. The "Report" also makes mention of pilgrims coming from Mesopotamia to visit the shrine of the Apostle at Mylapur; some of these at times would settle there and others in Malabar. It may be stated here that the Syrians of Malabar are as a body natives of the land by descent, and the Syriac trait in them is that of their liturgy, which is in the Syrian language. They call themselves Syrians by way of distinction from other body of Christians on the coast, who belong to the Latin Rite. The honorific appellation bestowed upon them by the rulers of the country is that of Mapla, which signifies great son or child, and they were

commonly so called by the people; this appellation also have been given to the descendants of Arabs in the country; the St. Thomas Christians now prefer to be called Nasrani (Nazarenes), the designation given by the Mohammedans to all Christians.

Ancient stone crosses and their inscriptions

There are certain stone crosses of ancient date in southern India, bearing inscriptions in Pahlavi letters. Extraordinary legends have been spread about them in some parts of Europe; the present writer was shown an engraving purporting to reproduce one of them, with a legend of the Apostolate and martyrdom of St. Thomas, a reproduction of the inscription on his crosses. This was attached to the calender of one of the dioceses of France, and this writer was asked if it were authentic.

To prevent the spreading of such reports it may be useful to state here of these crosses one is in the Church of Mount St. Thomas, Mylapur, discovered in 1547 after the arrival of the Portuguese in India; other is in the church of Kottayam, Malabar. Both are of Nestorian origin, are engraved as a bas-relief on the flat stone with ornamental decorations around the cross, and bear an inscription. The inscription has been variously read. Dr. Burnell, an Indian

antiquary, says that both crosses bear the same inscription, and offer the following reading: "In punishment by the cross was the suffering of this one, Who is the true Christ, God above and Guide ever pure." These crosses bear some resemblance to the Syro-Chinese Nestorian monument discovered in 1625 at Singan-fu, an ancient capital of China but erected in 781 and commemorating the arrival in China of Chaldean Nestorian missionaries in 636.

Their early prelates

Of the prelates who governed the Church in India after the Apostle's death very little is known; that little is collected and reproduced here. John the Persian, who was present at the Council of Nice (325), is the first known to history claiming the title. In his signature to the degrees of the Council he styles himself; John the Persian [presiding] over the churches in all Persia and Great India. The designation implies that he was the [primate] Metropolitan of Persia and also the Bishop of Great India. As metropolitan and the chief bishop of the East he may have represented at the council the Catholics of Seleucia. His control of the Church in India could only have been exercised by his sending priests under his juridiction to minister to those Christians. It is not known at what date India first commenced to have resident bishops; but between the years 530-35 Cosmas Indicopleustes in his "topographia" informs us

of the presence of a bishop residing in Caliana, the modern Kalyan at a short distance from Bombay. That residence was, in all probability, chosen because it was then the chief port of commerce on the west coast of India, and had easy access and communication with Persia. We know later of a contention which took place between Jesuab of Adiabene the Nestorian Patriarch and Simeon of Ravardshir, the Metropolitan of Persia, who had left India unprovided with bishops for a long period. The Patriarch reproached him severely for this gross neglect. We may take it that up to the period 650-60 the bishops sent to India, as Cosmas has said, were consecrated in Persia, but after this gross neglect the patriarch reserved to himself the choice and consecration of the prelates he sent out to India, and this practice was continued till the arrival of the Portuguese on the coast in 1504.

Le Quien places the two brothers Soper Iso and Prodho on the list of bishops of India, but Indian tradition gives it no support, and in this the British Museum Manuscript Report and Gouvea (Jornada, p. 5) concur. The brothers were known as church-builders, and were reputed to be holy men. Moreover, to include Thomas Cana in the lists of bishops is preposterous on the face of the evidence of the copper-plate grant. The "Report" mentions a long period when there was neither bishop nor priest surviving in the land, for they had all died out; the only clerical survival was a deacon far advanced in age. The ignorant Christians, finding themselves without prelates, made him say Mass and even ordain others, but as soon as prelates came from Babylon they put a stop to this disorder. The next authentic information we have on this head comes from the Vatican Library and has been published by Assemani (Bibli. Or., III, 589). It consists of a statement concerning two Nestorian bishops and their companions and a letter the former written in Syriac to the Patriarch announcing their arrival, dated 1504; there is a translation in Latin added to the documents. In 1490 the Christians of Malabar dispatched three messengers to ask the Nestorian Patriarch to send out bishops; one died on the journey, the other two presented themselves before the Patriarch and delivered their message; two monks were selected and the Patriach consecrated them bishops, assigning to one the name of Thomas and to the other that of John. The two bishops started on their journey to India accompanied by the two messengers. On their arrival they were received with great joy by the people, and the bishops commenced consecrating altars and ordaining a large number of priests "as they had been for a long time deprived of bishops". One of them, John, remained in India,

while the other Thomas, accompanied by Joseph, one of the messengers, returned to Mesopotamia, taking with them the offerings collected for the patriarch. Joseph returned to India in 1493, but Thomas remained in Mesopotamia, After about ten years, when the next patriarch ordained three other bishops for India, Thomas went back with them. These new bishops were also chosen from the monks, one was named Jaballa (he was the metropolitan), the second was named Denha, and the third Jacob. These four bishops took ship from Ormus and landed at Kananur; they found there some twenty Portuguese who had recently arrived and presented themselves to them, said they were Christians, explained their condition and rank, and were kindly treated. Of this large number of bishops, only one remained to work, and this was Mar Jacob; the other three, including the metropolitan, after a short time returned to their country. Gouvea adds that they were either dissatisfied with their charge or did not like the country. The Portuguese writers mention only two bishops as residents, John who had come before their arrival in India and Mar Jacob. Nothing further is known of John but Jacob lived in the country till his death. St. Francis Xavier makes a very pretty elogium of him in a letter written to King John III of Portugal on 26 January, 1549. "Mar Jacob [or Jacome Abuna, as St. Francis styles him] for forty-five years has served God and your Highness in these parts, a very old, a virtuous, and a holy man, and at the same time unnoticed by your Highness and by almost all in India. God rewards him . . . He is noticed only by the Fathers of St. Francis, and they take so good care of him that nothing more is wanted . . . He has laboured much among the Christians of St. Thomas, and now in his old age he is very obedient to the customs of the Holy Mother Church of Rome." This elogium of St. Francis sums up his career for the forty-five years he worked in Malabar (1504-49). He came out as a Nestorian, remained such during his early years, but gradually as he came in touch with the Catholic missionaries he allowed them to preach in his churches and to instruct his people; in his old age he left Cranganore and went to live in the Franciscan convent at Cochin and there he died in 1549. There remain two others — the last of the Mesopotamian prelates who presided over these Christians — Mar Joseph and Mar Abraham; their career will be detailed further on.

Were these Christians infected with Nestorianism before 1599?

When Cosmas gave us the information of the existence of a Christian community in "Male (Malabar) where the pepper is grown" he also supplied us with additional details: that they have a bishop residing at Kalyan; that in Taprobano [ Ceylon] "an island of interior India where the Indian Ocean is situated" there is a "Christian Church with clergy and the faithful; similarly in the island of Dioscordis [Socotra] in the same Indian Ocean." Then he enumerates the churches in Arabia Felix, Bactria, and among the Huns; and all these churches are by him represented to be controlled by the Metropolitan of Persia. Now at that time the holder of this dignity was Patrick, the tutor, as Assemani designates him, of Thomas of Edessa, a prominent Nestorian to which sect Cosmas also belonged; hence his interest in supplying all these details. The bishop and clergy whom the Metropolitan, Patrick, would send out to all the above-mentioned places and churches would and must have been undoubtedly infected with one and the same heresy. Hence it is quite safe to conclude that at the time of the visit of Cosmas to India (A.D. 530-35) all these churches, as also the Church in India, were holding the Nestorian doctrine of their bishops and priests. Nor should this historical fact cause surprise when we take into consideration the opportunities, the bold attitude and violent measures adopted by the promoters of this heresy after expulsion from the Roman Empire. When the Emperor Zeno ordered Cyrus, Bishop of Edessa, to purge his diocese of that heresy (A.D. 489), the Nestorians were forced to seek refuge across the Roman boundary into Persia. Among them were the banished professors and students of the Persian School of Edessa, the centre of the Nestorian error, and they found refuge and protection with Barsumas, Metropolitan of Nisibis, himself a fanatical adherent of Nestorius. Barsumas at this time also held from the Persian king the office of governor of the frontier.

With the influence Barsumas possessed at court it was an easy thing for him to make the king, already so disposed, believe that the actual bishops holding sees in his territory were friendly to his enemies, the Romans, and that it would be better to replace them by men he knew who would owe allegiance only to the Persian monarch. This stratagem rapidly succeeded in capturing most of those sees; and the movement became so strong that, although Barsumas predeceased Acka (Acacius), the occupant of the chief see of Seleucia, a Catholic, yet a Nestorian was selected to succeed the latter (A.D. 496). Thus within the short space of seven years the banished heresy sat mistress on the throne of Seleucia, in a position to force every existing see eastward of the Roman Empire to embrace the heresy and to secure its permanence. Thus the Indian Church suffered the same fate which befell the Churches of Persia, and by 530-35 we find that she has a Nestorian prelate consecrated in Persia and presiding at Kalyan over her future destiny. If further proof is wanted to uphold the above finding, we offer the following historical facts of the control exercised by the Nestorian Patriarch. In 650-60, as above stated, Jesuab of Adiabene claimed authority over India and reproached Simeon of Revardshir, the Metropolitan of Persia, for not having sent bishops to India and so deprived that Church of the succession of her ministry. In 714-28 Saliba Zacha, another Nestorian Patriarch, raised the see of India to metropolitan rank. Again in 857 Theodosius, another Nestorian Patriarch, included the See of India among the exempted which, owing to distance from the patriarchal see, should in future send letters of communion but once in six years. This ruling was subsequently incorporated in a synodal canon.

If we look to the general tradition of the St. Thomas Christians it will be found that all their prelates came from Babylon, the ancient residence as they say, of the Patriarch or Catholicos of the East. It is further known and acknowledged by them that whenever they remained deprived of a bishop for a long time, they used to send messengers to that Patriarchate asking that bishops be sent out to them. Sufficient proof of this practice has been given above when discussing the arrival of four bishops in 1504. The Holy See was fully aware that the Malabar Christians were under the control of the Nestorian Patriarch. When Julius III gave Sulaka his Bull of nomination as the Catholic Chaldean patriarch, he distinctly laid down the same extent of jurisdiction which had been claimed and controlled by his late Nestorian predecessor; hence in the last clause it is distinctly laid down: "In Sin Massin et Calicuth et tota India." It becomes necessary to fix this historical truth clearly, because some in Malabar deny this historical fact. They would wish people to believe that all the Portuguese missionaries, bishops, priests, and writers were completely mistaken when they styled them Nestorians in belief, and because of this false report all subsequent writers continued to call them Nestorians. The reader who has gone through the statement of facts above related must be conscious that such an attempt at distorting or boldly denying public facts is utterly hopeless. They maintain, in support of their false view, that there always had been a small body among the Chaldeans in Mesopotamia who remained attached to the true Faith, and from them they received their bishops. This plea is historically false, for the bishops they received all came to them from the Nestorians, and as to the hypothesis of the existence during all these centuries back of a Catholic party among the Nestorian Chaldeans, it is too absurd to be discussed. It was only after the conversion of Sulaka in 1552 that the Chaldeans in part returned to the unity of faith. The truth is that the Malabar Church remained from A.D. 496 up till then in heresy.

Medieval travellers on the Thomas Christians

During the centuries that these Christians were isolated from the rest of Christendom, their sole intercourse was limited to Mesopotamia, whence the Nestorian Patriarch would from time to time supply them with prelates. But from the close of the thirteenth century Western travellers, chiefly missionaries sent out by the popes, sent to the West occasional news of their existence. Some of these it will be useful to reproduce here. The first who informed the

world of the existence of these St. Thomas Christians was Friar John of Monte Corvino. After he had spent several years as a missionary in Persia and adjoining countries, he proceeded to China, passing through the Indian ports between the years 1292 and 1294. He tells us in a letter written from Cambales (Peking) in 1305 that he had remained thirteen months in that part of India where the Church of St. Thomas the Apostle stood (Mylapore); he also baptized in different places about one hundred persons. In the same letter he says that there were in Malabar a few Jews and Christians, but they were of little worth; he also says that "the inhabitants persecute much the Christians." (Yule, "Cathay and the Way Thither," I) The next visitor is Marco Polo, who on his return from China (c. 1293) touched the India of St. Thomas. Of his tomb he tells us: "The body Of Messer Saint Thomas the Apostle lies in the province of Malabar, at a certain little town having no great population; 'tis a place where few traders go . . . Both Christians and Saracens however greatly frequent it in pilgrimage, for the Saracens also hold the Saint in great reverence....The Christians who go in pilgrimage take some of the earth from the place where the Saint was killed and give a portion thereof to any who is sick, and by the power of God and of St. Thomas the sick man is incontinently cured. . . . The Christians," he resumes later, "who have charge of the church have a great number of Indian nut trees [coconuts], and thereby get their living" (Marco Polo, Yule's, 2nd edit., II, 338). Friar Jordan, a Dominican, came to India as a missionary in 1321; he then had as companions four Franciscan friars, but on approaching India he had parted from them to make diversion; in the meanwhile the vessel conveying the others was by stress of weather compelled to enter Tana, a port on the west coast, where the Khasi of the place put them to death as they would not embrace Islam; the feast of Blessed Thomas of Tolentino and his companions is fixed on 6 April in the "Martyrologium Romanum". Later Jordanus, hearing what had happened, rescued their bodies and gave them burial. He must then have gone back to Europe, for he is next heard of in France in 1330, when Pope John XXII consecrated him at Avignon Bishop of Quilon. He left for the East the same year with two letters from the pope, one to the chief of the Christians of Quilon and the other to the Christians at Molephatam, a town on the Gulf of Manaar. In the first the pope beseeches "that divisions cease and clouds of error stain not the brightness of faith of all generated by the waters of baptism . . . and that the phantom of schism and wilful blindness of unsullied faith darken not the vision of those who believe in Christ and adore His name."

Much the same in other words is repeated in the second letter, and they are urged to unity with the Holy Catholic Roman Church. The pope recommends the bishop to the kindness of the people, and thanks them for that shown to the friars who are working among them. All we know is that Bishop Jordanus was sent out with these letters, but nothing further is heard of him. He wrote a small book named "Mirabilia", edited by Col. A. Yule for the Hakluyt Society, published in 1863 (see also "Cathay", I, 184). The next visitor is Blessed Oderic of Pordenone, who about 1324-25 landed at Tana, recovered the bodies of the four friars, Thomas and his companions who had there suffered martyrdom, and conveyed them to China. On his way he halted at Quilon, which he calls Palumbum; thence he took passage on a Chinese junk for a certain city called Zayton in China. He mentions the Christians at Quilon, and that at Mylapore there were fourteen houses of Nestorians ("Cathay", I, 57). A few years later Giovanni de Marignolli, the papal delegate to China, arrived at Quilon. He stayed there at a church dedicated to St. George, belonging to the Latin Rite, and he adorned it with fine paintings and taught there the Holy Law. After dwelling there for upwards of a year he sailed to visit the shrine of the Apostle; he calls the town Mirapolis. After describing the culture of pepper on the coast he adds: "the pepper does not grow in forests but in gardens prepared for the purpose; nor are the Saracens the proprietors, but the Christians of St. Thomas, and these are the masters of the public weighing-office" [customs office]. Before leaving Quilon he erected a monument to commemorate his visit, and this was a marble pillar with a stone cross on it, intended to last, as he says, till the world's end. "It had the pope's arms" he says, "and my own engraved on it, with an inscription both in Indian and Latin characters. I consecrated and blessed it in the presence of an infinite multitude of people." The monument stood there till late in the nineteenth century when by the gradual erosion of the coast it fell into the sea and disappeared. He concludes his narrative by saying that after staying a year and four months he took leave of the brethren, i.e. the missionaries who were working in that field.

Their two last Syrian bishops

The two last Syrian bishops were Mar Joseph Sulaka and Mar Abraham; both arrived in Malabar after the arrival of the Portuguese. Their case presents two questions for discussion; were they canonically appointed, and had they completely rejected Nestorianism? As to the first there is no doubt that his appointment was canonical, for he, the brother of the first Chaldean patriarch, was appointed by his successor Abed Jesu and sent out to Malabar, and both the above patriarchs had their jurisdiction over the Church in Malabar confirmed by the Holy See. Mar Joseph was sent to India with letters of introduction from the pope to the Portuguese authorities; he was besides accompanied by Bishop Ambrose, a Dominican and papal commissary to the first patriarch, by his socius Father Anthony, and by Mar Elias Hormaz, Archbishop of Diarbekir. They arrived at Goa about 1563, and were detained at Goa for eighteen months before being allowed to enter the diocese. Proceeding to Cochin they lost Bishop Ambrose; the others travelled through Malabar for two and a half years on foot, visiting every church and detached settlement. By the time they arrived at Angamale war broke out. Then Mar Elias, Anthony the socius of the deceased prelate, and one of the two Syrian monks who had accompanied them, left India to return; the other monk remained with Archbishop Joseph Sulaka. For some time the new prelate got on well with the Portuguese and Jesuit missionaries, in fact, they praised him for having introduced order, decorum, and propriety in the Church services and all went harmoniously for some time. Later, friction arose because of his hindering the locally-ordained Syrians from saying mass and preaching and instructing his flock. Eventually an incident revealed that Mar Joseph had not dropped his Nestorian errors, for it was reported to the Bishop of Cochin that he had attempted to tamper with the faith of some young boys in his service belonging to the Diocese of Cochin. This came to the knowledge of the bishop, through him to the Metropolitan of Goa, then to the viceroy; it was decided to remove and send him to Portugal, to be dealt with by the Holy See.

The following is the nature of the incident. Taking these youths apart, he instructed them that they should venerate the Blessed Virgin as the refuge of sinners, but were not to call her Mother of God, as that was not true; but she should be styled Mother of Christ (Nestorius, refusing at the Council of Ephesus the term Theotokos proposed by the council, substituted that of Christokos, which the Fathers refused to accept because under this designation he could cloak his error of two person in Christ). Mar Joseph was sent to Portugal; arriving there he succeeded in securing the good will of the Queen, then regent for her young son; he abjured his error before Cardinal Henry, expressed repentance, and by order of the queen was sent back to his diocese. Gouvea tells us that as he continued to propagate his errors on his return he was again deported and Cardinal Henry reported his case to St. Pius V. The pope sent a Brief to Jorge, Archbishop of Goa, dated 15 Jan., 1567, ordering him to make enqueries into the conduct and doctrine of the prelate; in consequence of this the first provincial council was held; the charges against Mar Joseph were found to be true and he was sent to Portugal in 1568, thence to Rome, where he died shortly after his arrival.

While the former was leaving India there arrived from Mesopotemia an imposter named Abraham, sent by Simeon the Nestorian Patriarch. he succeeded in entering Malabar undetected. At the appearance of another Chaldean who proclaimed himself a bishop the people were greatly delighted and received him with applause; he set about at once acting as bishop, holding episcopal functions, and conferring Holy orders and quietly established himself in the diocese. (Gouva, p. col. 2). Later the Portuguese captured him and sent him to Portugual, but en route he escaped at Mozambique, found his way back to Mesopotamia, and went straight to Mar Abed Jesu the Chaldean Patriarch, having realized from his Indian experience that unless he secured a nomination from him it would be difficult to establish himself in Malabar. He succeeded admirably in his devices, obtained nomination, consecration, and a letter to the pope from the patriarch. With this he proceeded to Rome, and while there at an audience with the pope he disclosed his true position (Du Jarric, "Rer. Ind. Thesaur.", tom. III, lib. II, p. 69). He avowed to pope with his own lips that he had received holy orders invalidly. The pope ordered the Bishop of San Severino to give him orders from tonsure to the priesthood, and a Brief was sent to the Patriarch of Venice to consecrate Abraham the bishop. The facts were attested, both as to the lesser orders and the episcopal consecration, by the original letters which were found in the archieves of the Church of Angamale where he resided and where he had died.

Pope Pius IV used great tact in handling this case. Abed Jesu must have taken Abraham to be a priest; he is supposed to have abjured Nestorianism, and professed the Catholic faith, and conferred on him episcopal consecration; the pope had to consider the position in which the patriarch had been placed by the consecration and nomination of the man; the defects were supplied, and Abraham succeeded also in obtaining his nomination and creation as Archbishop Angamale from the pope, with letters to the Archbishop of Goa, and to the Bishop of Cochin dated 27 Feb., 1565. Such was the success of this daring man. On arrival at Goa he was detained in a convent, but escaped and entered Malabar. His arrival was a surprise and a joy to the people. He kept out of the reach of the Portuguese, living among the churches in the hilly parts of the country. As time passed on he was left in peaceful occupation. As is usual in such cases the old tendencies assumed once more their ascendency, and he returned to his Nestorian teaching and practices, Complaints were made; Rome sent warnings to Abraham to allow Catholic doctrine to be preached and taught to his people. At one time he took the warning seriously to his heart. In 1583 Father Valignano, then Superior of the Jesuit Missions, devised a means of forcing a reform. He persuaded Mar Abraham to assemble a synod, and to convene the clergy and the chiefs of the laity. He also prepared a profession of faith which was to be made publicly by the bishop and all present. Moreover, urgent reforms were sanctioned and agreed to. A letter was sent by Pope Gregory XIII, 28 Nov., 1578, laying down what Abraham had to do for the improvement of his diocese; after the above-mentioned synod Abraham sent a long letter to the pope in reply, specifying all that he had been able to do by the aid of the Fathers (see letter, pp. 97-99, in Giamil). This is called the first reconciliation of the Syrians to the Church. It was formal and public, but left no improvement on the general body, the liturgical books were not corrected nor was catholic teaching introduced in the Church.

In 1595 Mar Abraham fell dangerously ill (Du Jarric, tom. I, lib. II, p. 614). Unfortunately he survived the excellent sentiments he then had and recovered. After about two years, in 1597 (Gouva, p. 2) he was a second time again dangerously ill; Archbishop Aleixo de Menezes wrote and exhorted him to reform his people, but for answer he had only frivolous excuses. He would not even avail himself of the exhortations of the Fathers who surrounded his bed, nor did he receive the last sacraments. Thus he died. The viceroy made known his death to Archbishop Menezes, then absent on a visitation tour, by letter of 6 Feb., 1597.

Archbishop Menezes and the Synod of Diamper

Archbishop Menezes received the intelligence of the death of Mar Abraham while on a tour of pastoral visitation at Damao. Fearing the work on hand could not be postponed, he decided to act on the powers delegated to him by pope in his last Brief, and nominated Father Francisco Roz of the Society of Jesus who undoubtly fulfilled the requirements demanded by the pope for the appointment. On receipt of the letter and the instructions accompanying it, the superior, knowing that the late Abraham before his death had assigned to his archdeacon the government of the church pending the arrival of another bishop from Babylon, and the same had been accepted by the people, and foreseeing also the insecurity of the position, decided that it would be prudent to await the return of the archbishop before taking any further step. The Archbishop on returning to Goa weighed the gravity of the case, and felt bound in conscience to safeguard the Syrian Christians from falling again into the hands of a new heretical intruder. He decided on visiting the Serra personally. Father Nicholáo Pimenta, then the Superior of Jesuit missions in India, writing the General of the Society, Father Claudius Acquaviva, takes up the narrative as follows; "It was not small comfort to all that Alexious Menezes, the Lord Archbishop of Goa, moved by his zeal for salvation of souls and at our persuasion undertook to visit the ancient Christians of St. Thomas, spread through the hilly parts of Malabar. There was great danger that after the death of Archbishop Abraham at

Angamale, and the succession of the Archdeacon George to the government of the church on the demise of the prelate, she would lapse again under the sway of Nestorian prelates; nor were there wanting persons of ecclesiastical rank possessed of means who proposed to proceed to Babylon and bring thence another Archbishop. To the Archbishop of Goa not only by metropolitan right, but also in virtue of Apostolic letters appertained the right to assume the administration of that Church sede vacante; and he took upon himself the task of retaining the vacillating archdeacon in due submission to the Holy See and avoiding schism."

He therefore issued instructions to the rector of the Vaipicotta College, enclosing a letter of appointment naming the archdeacon administrator of the diocese provided he in the presence of the rector made a solemn profession of faith. The archdeacon expressed his satisfaction on receiving the intimation and promised to make the profession demanded on a feast day. But later on he would neither make the profession, nor would he accept the nomination of administrator as coming from the archbishop of the diocese. Afterwards he caused it to be reported that he had so acted on the advice of others. The Archbishop of Goa, after taking counsel with the Fathers, decided on starting on the visitation of the Archdiocese of Angamale to induce that Church to receive a prelate from the Sovereign Pontiff. On this coming to be known all sorts of difficulties were raised to induce him to abandon his project, even from ecclesiastics, with such pertinacity that the archbishop wrote to Pimenta: "Heaven and earth have conspired against my design." But he manfully faced the work before him, and went through it with singular firmness of character and prudence, and supported by Divine aid he began, continued, and completed the arduous task he had undertaken with complete success.

During the visitation (full details of which are given by Gouvea in the "Jornada", the one source whence all other writers have obtained their information, some even going so far as entirely to distort the facts to satisfy their prejudice) the archbishop underwent all sorts of hardships, visiting the principal parishes, addressing the people, holding services, and everywhere conferring the sacraments, of which these people were deprived. He caused the Nestorian books in the possession of the churches and in the hands of the people to be expurgated of their errors, and they were then restored to their owners. All the books then existing among the Syrians were in manuscript form; printed books among them did not exist at this period. Passages that denied the Supreme authority of the Apostolic See of Rome were similarly deleted. He also caused capable priests to be sought out, and these he placed in charge of parishes. Eventually he established eighty parishes. Thus he prepared his ground for the reform of this Church which he intended to carry out. The synod was opened with great solemnity and pomp on 20 June, 1599, at the village of Udiamparur, whence it is known as the Synod of Diamper. The Acts were published in Portuguese as an appendix to the "Jornada"; they were also translated into Latin. The opening Act the synod was the profession of faith. The Archbishop was the first to make his profession, then followed the archdeacon who made in Malayalam, a translation of the former prepared for the purpose. Subsequently the clergy in turn made theirs in the hands of archbishop as the archdeacon also had done. The Latin text of the synod, and separate in "Juris Pontificii de Propaganda Fide", Paris. I, vol. VI, part II, p. 243. Besides the archbishop and certain Jesuit Fathers who assisted him there were some 153 Syrian priests and about 600 laymen deputed by the congregation to represent them; all these signed the decrees that were passed by the synod and proclaimed the orthodox faith embodied in the act of profession taken by the entire clergy. The Archbishop addressed the synod on the falsity of the errors of Nestorius up till then held by that Church, the assembly denounced them, anathematized the Nestorian Patriarch, and promised obedience and submission to the Roman Pontiff.

Among the calumnies spread against Menezes and the synod the most prominent is that all the Syriac books of the community were burnt and destroyed by order of the synod. What was done in this matter under the decree passed in the fifth session is thus described in the "Jornada" (tr. Glen, book I, ch. xxiii, p. 340). After the above condemnation of errors it was decided that certain books which had been named and were current in the serra and full of errors should be burnt; that others were to be censured only until they were corrected and expurgated. The list of books to be burnt is given in the 14th decree of the third session. The books consist:of those ex professo teaching Nestorian errors; containing false legends,books of sorceries and superstitious practices.

None of these were capable of correction. In all other books that had any statements containing doctrinal errors, the latter were erased. The "Jornada" (p. 365) gives the system adopted during the visitation of the Church for the correction of books: after Mass was said all books written in Syriac, whether the property of the Church or of private individuals were handed over to Father Francisco Roz, who with three Cathanars (Syrian priests) specially selected for the purpose would retire to the vestry and there correct the books in conformity with the directions given by the synod ; those that were condemned and forbidden were handed over to the archbishop, who would order them to be burnt publicly. Under his orders no book capable of being purged from heretical error would be destroyed, but those ex professo teaching heresy would be destroyed. After the conclusion of the synod Archbishop Menezes continued his visitation of the churches down to Quilon and then returned to Goa. He did not forget to send from thence a letter of warm thanks to Father Pimenta for the continuous and important aid given by the Fathers of the Society all through the work he had to perform in Malabar.

Their first three Jesuit bishops

In making provisions for the future government of the Syrian Church in Malabar, Clement VIII had to adopt such measures as would secure its permanency in the faith and exclude the danger of a relapse. He decided that it would be the safest course to appoint a Latin prelate in sympathy with the people and fully acquainted with their liturgical language. The selection fell on Father Roz, no doubt after hearing the opinion of Archbishop Menezes. Father Roz was consecrated by the Archbishop at Goa under the title of Bishop of Angamale in 1601. Four years later Paul V transferred him (1605) to the new See of Cranganore, which he created an archbishopric in order that the faithful brought to unity should not feel that the honour of their see had suffered any diminution of honour. The new prelate made a visitation tour through the diocese, correcting the liturgical books at every church where this had not been

done, and enforcing everywhere the rules sanctioned by the Synod of Diamper. In 1606 he convened and held a diocesan synod; no further details of his administration are handed down to us. After twenty-three years of strenuous episcopate he died at Parur, his ordinary residence, 18 February, 1624, and was buried in the church. Besides the Latin Canon of the Mass he had also translated the Latin ritual into Syriac for the administration of the Holy Sacraments by the clergy. Years later, on the occasion of the first pastoral visit of the first Vicar Apostolic of Trichur to the church of Parur in 1888, on enquiring after the tomb of the archbishop, was told that no tomb of his was known to exist there, but after careful search had been made the tombstone, with its Malayalam inscription in ancient Tamil characters, was found and is now affixed to the inner wall of the church. The loss of all knowledge of the tombstone was caused by the sacking and burning of this church with many others by the soldiers of Tippoo Sultan on his second invasion of the coast. Paulinus a Sancto Bartholomaeo, who had visited the church in 1785 and had taken a transcript of the inscription at the time, of which he gives a Latin translation in his

"India Christ. Orient.", p. 64, did not read the name Roz on the stone, however the name is there in a flaw of the stone and has been read on rediscovery.Father Estevão de Brito, also a Jesuit, was designated successor, and was consecrated by the Archbishop of Goa in the Church of Bom Jesus, Goa, on 29 Sept., 1624, and left Goa for his diocese on 4 November. He died on 2 December, 1641, having governed the see for over seventeen years. The third of the series was Francisco Garcia, of the same society. He was consecrated Bishop of Ascalon on 1 November, 1637, with right of succession by the Archbishop of Goa, in the

Jesuit Church of Bom Jesus, Goa, and succeeded to the See of Cranganore in 1641. Under this prelate a frightful schism broke out (1653) and his entire flock, with all his clergy and churches, withdrew from his allegiance. Out of the entire body of 200,000 Syrian Christians only some 400 individuals remained faithful. This misfortune has by most writers been attributed to Garcia's want of tact, obstinancy, and sarcastic disposition: as to the latter defect there is one instance, and that at the last opportunity for reconciliation, which fell through owing to his harsh treatment of the delegates sent to him by his revolted flock. But he was not responsible for the schism. This had been hatched many years previously during the lifetime of his predecessor de Brito, secretly and unknown to him. Here the dates only of documents can be quoted. On 1 January, 1628 the Archdeacon George wrote a letter to the papal nuncio at Lisbon complaining that no answer was given to a letter sent some twenty years earlier regarding the spiritual wants of this Christian people. In 1630 Rome was informed of these complaints, the substance of which was that only Jesuits controlled these Christians, that they were unsuited, and had controlled them for over forty years, and they wanted other religious orders to be sent. The Sacred Congregation sent instructions that other orders should be admitted into the diocese.

Paulinus (op. cit., pp. 70 sq.) adduces further evidence of the trickery and treachery of Archdeacon George. In 1632 he convened a meeting at Rapolin consisting of clergy and laity, when a letter of complaint was sent to the King of Portugal against the Jesuit Fathers; these very same complaints formed the heads of their grievances in 1653, when open schism was proclaimed to secure independence and oust the Jesuits. The plot had been hatched for a good number of years; it was begun by Archdeacon George (d. 1637) who was succeeded in office by a relative, another Thomas de Campo (Thoma Parambil) who in 1653 headed the revolt. After the schism had broken out the intruder Ahatalla, a Mesopotamian prelate, was deported by the Portuguese, who took him by ship off Cochin and there lay at anchor. The Christians, coming to know of the fact, threatened to storm the fort, which the governor had to man with his soldiers, while the

ship sailed away to Goa during the night. The revolted seeing their last attempt to secure a Baghdad prelate frustrated, leaders and people took a solemn vow

that they would never again submit to Archbishop Garcia. Finding themselves in this position they thought of calling to their aid the Carmelite Fathers who

had visited Malabar but were then at Goa. When Alexander VII came to know the calamity which had befallen the Syrian community, he sent out (1656) the

Carmelites, Fathers José de Sebastiani and Vincente of St. Catherine, to work for the return to unity and to their archbishop of this revolted church. Later

other Carmelite Fathers joined in the good work. Within a year of their arrival (1657) the Carmelites had succeeded in reconciling forty-four churches.

Although Archdeacon George had remained obdurate, a relative of his, Chandy Perambil (Alexander de Campo) headed the return movement, but they would have

nothing to do with Archbishop Garcia.

The Carmelite period

Under these circumstances Father José de Sebastiani decided to return to Rome and inform the pope of the real difficulty which stood in the way of permanent

reconciliation. The pope on learning the state of the case had Father José consecrated and appointed him Commissary Apostolic for Malabar, with power to

consecrate two other bishops, naming them vicars Apostolic. Provided with these powers he returned to Malabar in 1861 and took up his work. By this time,

Archbishop Garcia had been removed from the scene by death. Between 1661 and 1662 the Carmelite Friars under Bishop José had reclaimed the large number of

eighty-four churches, leaving to the leader of the revolt — the aforesaid Archdeacon Thomas — only thirty-two churches. Both these figures are of great

importance for the subsequent history of the Malabar Syrians. The eighty-four churches and their congregations were the body from which all the Romo-Syrians

have descended, while the other thirty-two represent the nucleus whence the Jacobites and their subdivisions, Reformed Syrians, etc., have originated. In

January, 1663, the political situation regarding these Christians was entirely changed. The Dutch had arrived on the coast and had captured Cochin. The

Portuguese power fell. The new masters expelled not only all the Portuguese clergy but also forced Bishop José and his religious to leave the country. In

this predicament the bishop selected and consecrated the native priest Chandy Perambil (Alexander de Campo) and made him a vicar Apostolic over the flock he

was forced to leave.

Before departing, however, he handed to the Dutch Government of Cochin a list of the eighty-four churches that were under his control and commended Bishop

Chandy and the Christians of these churches to his protection. This the governor undertook to fulfil. Though the Dutch did not trouble themselves about the

Syrian Christians, yet they would not permit any Jesuit or Portuguese prelate to reside in Malabar, although simultaneously with Bishop José de Sebastiani,

the other Carmelite missionaries had also to depart. However, they were not absent long, for eventually they returned by ones and twos and were not molested.

Later, in 1673, they established themselves at Verapoly and built a church there, having obtained the land rent-free from the Rajah of Cochin; it is yet the

headquarters of the Carmelites in Malabar. One of the Carmelite fathers named Matthew even came into friendly relations with the Dutch Governor van Rheede,

and aided him in compiling his voluminous work on local botany known as "Hortus Malabaricus." The Carmelites working among the Syrians under Bishop Chandy

remained on good terms with him; the bishop died in 1676. Raphael, a priest of the Cochin diocese, was selected to succeed the former, but he turned out a

failure and died in 1695." The year following, Father Peter-Paul, a Carmelite, was created titular Archbishop of Ancyra, and was appointed vicar Apostolic

for Malabar. With his arrival in 1678 there was a considerable improvement in the relations between the Dutch Government and the Carmelite Fathers. The

Archbishop Peter-Paul was a prince of the House of Parma, and his mother was the sister of Pope Innocent XII; before coming out to Malabar he had obtained a

decree from the Government of Holland authorizing the residence in Malabar of one bishop and twelve Carmelite priests who had to be either Italians, Germans,

or Belgians; but they were not admitted into Cochin.

The French traveller Anquetil du Perron, who visited Malabar in 1758, offers the following statistics regarding the number of Christians on the coast he had

obtained from Bishop Florentius, the Carmelite Vicar Apostolic of Malabar. He tells us that the bishop believed the total number of Christians to amount to

200,000; of these 100,000 were Catholic Syrians, another 50,000 were of the Latin Rite ; both these were under his jurisdiction, while the revolted Syrians

who may be classed as Jacobites, were under Mar Thomas VI (who on his consecration in 1772 assumed the name and style of Dionysius I), and numbered 50,000.

From the death of Archbishop Garcia in 1659 the See of Cranganore had no resident bishop till 1701, when Clement XI appointed João Rebeiro, a Jesuit. When

the latter assumed charge the Carmelite Vicar Apostolic, Angelus Francis, told his Syrian flock that his jurisdiction had ceased and they must now pass over

to that of the new Archbishop of Cranganore. The Syrians refused to acknowledge the new archbishop and sent a petition to Rome that they preferred to remain

under the Carmelites, who had seventy-one churches in complete submission and eighteen in partial union (i.e., the parish was divided and part had submitted

to Rome), while only twenty-eight churches remained altogether separate. Pope Clement, after informing the King of Portugal of the state of things, extended

in 1709 the jurisdiction of Bishop Angelus over the dioceses of Cranganore and Cochin, and the pope assigned as a reason for doing so that the Dutch would

not tolerate any Portuguese prelate in the country, and the Christians threatened rather to return to schism than accept the bishop sent out. For fuller

particulars of this period the reader is referred to: G. T. Mackenzie, "History of Christianity in Travangore," in Census Report of 1901, Trivandrum; and

Paulinus a Sancto Bartholomaeo, "India Orientalis Christ" (Rome, 1794).

On the arrival of the Dutch and the capture of Cranganore it became impossible for the Jesuits to retain the college at Vipicotta; they abandoned the place

and removing to the interior beyond the reach of their enemies, opened a new college, at Ambalacad, whence they controlled their new missions on the east

coast. Bishop Rebeiro returned there and carried on his work; eventually several of the Syrian Catholic parishes went over to the succeeding Archbishop of

Cranganore, and these bishops eventually lapsed under the control of the Archbishops of Goa. Bishop Rebeiro died at the college of Ambalacad on 24 Sept.,

1716, is buried in the church of Puttencherra and has a tombstone with an inscription in Portuguese. His successors fixed Puttencherra as their residence,

and the parish church became a pro-cathedral. The following particulars of their nomination and death are here recorded. Archbishop Rebeiro was succeeded by

Antonio Carvallo Pimental also a Jesuit, consecrated as the former had been at the church of Bom Jesus, Goa, by the archbishop on 29 Feb., 1722, d. at

Puttencherra on 6 March, 1752. Paulinus says of him: vir doctus et Malabarensibus gratus, qui eum nomine Budhi Metran, sapientis et eruditi praesulis

compellebant." He has a tombstone with inscription. João Luiz Vasconcellos, also a Jesuit, was consecrated at Calicut by Bishop Clemente of Cochin in 1753

and d. at Puttencherra in 1756; the church contains his tombstone with inscription. Salvador Reis, the last of the series who resided in India, was also a

Jesuit; he was consecrated by the same Bishop Clemente at Angengo on Feb., 1758, d. on 7 April, 1777, at Puttencherra and has his tombstone with inscription

in the same church. Paulinus records of him "vir sanctimonia vitae praeclarus", he survived the suppression of his order. This closes the list of the bishops

who have governed the See of Cranganore.

To complete the historical account of the Syrian Malabar Church, brief mention should also be made of the line of prelates who ruled over the schismatics who

eventually became Jacobites, embracing that error through their prelates: Thomas I, proclaimed a bishop by those he had led (1653) into the aforesaid schism

after the imposition of the hands of twelve priests his followers and the placing on his head of a mitre and in his hand a pastoral staff. He continued

obdurate and died a sudden death in 1673. Thomas II, brother of the former, proclaimed in 1674, died eight days later struck by lighting. Thomas III, nephew

of the former, received the mitre in 1676, a Jacobite. Thomas IV of the family, succeeded in 1676 and died in 1686, a Jacobite. Thomas V, a nephew of the

former, made every effort to obtain consecration but failed, d. in 1717, a Jacobite. Thomas VI received the mitre from his dying uncle and the imposition of

hands of twelve priests. He wrote to the Jacobite Patriarch of Antioch to send bishops. Eventually the Dutch authorities helped him and obtained for him

three bishops, on condition of his defraying the expenses. Three Jacobite bishops came out to India in 1751, Mar Basil, Mar Gregory, and Mar John. The first

named died a year after arrival; the second years later consecrated Mar Thomas VI a bishop in 1772, and he assumed the name of Dionysius I. The Dutch

authorities found great difficulty in obtaining payment for the expenses incurred; a suit was instituted against the Jacobites in the Travancore Rajah's

court in 1775 and payment of the amount twelve thousand pounds, was obtained. He died in 1808.

For the long period between 1678 and 1886, the Catholic Syrians remained under the uninterrupted control of about fifteen Carmelite Bishops as vicars

Apostolic. During this period there had often arisen severe troubles which cannot here be detailed, quarrels between Syrian and Latin Christians, agitation

against the control of some bishops; over and above these the ordinary trials of controlling such a large, factious, and difficult body. There had also been

two most serious schismatical intrusions within this Syrian fold by Catholic Chaldean prelates who had come from Mesopotamia with the full connivance of the

Chaldean Patriarch and against the express orders of the Roman Pontiff. The Carmelite had to face and surmount all these difficulties and the keep the flock

in due submission to ecclesiastical regime. Of the two intrusions, the first was that of the Chaldean Bishop Mar Roccos, who entered Malabar in 1861. Pius IX

denounced him to the faithful as an intruder, yet he met with a complacent reception in many of the churches, succeeded in stirring up the dormant hydra of

schism, and caused a great agitation. Fortunately for the peace of the Church he was persuaded to return to Mesopotamia within the year. The second, who came

to Malabar in 1874, caused much greater harm, the evil effects of which seem to be permanent in the principal church of Trichur, though elsewhere in process

of time those evil effects have been remedied. This was the Bishop Mellus, whom the patriarch had sent over in spite of the strict prohibition of the same

pope. It was only when after repeated admonitions, the pope had fixed a limit of the time after which should he continue refractory he would be

excommunicated, that he yielded and sent Bishop Mellus instructions to return. When the troublesome character of these people is taken into consideration it

reflects great credit on the carmelite Order that the bishops in charge were successful in retaining them as a body in the unity of Holy Church.

Two Latin vicars apostolic

The Mellusian schism, though broken by the adverse judgments of the Madras High Court, was by no means yet extinct when in the autumn of 1878 the Holy See

decided on placing the Syrian Christians under separate administration, appointing two vicars Apostolic of the Latin Rite for the purpose. These were Rev.

A.E. Medlycott, Ph.D., Military Chaplain in the Punjab, educated in the Propaganda College, Rome, and consecrated by the Apostolic Delegate Mgr. A. Ajuti on

18 Dec., 1887, at Ootacamund, titular Bishop of Tricomia, appointed to the Vicariate Apostolic of Trichur; and the Rev. Charles Lavinge, S.J., former private

secretary of the late Father Beckx, General of the Society, consecrated in Belgium before coming out, appointed to the See of Kottayam, later called of

Changanacherry. Under the Concordat of Leo XIII with the King of Portugal an important advantage had been gained by the suppression of the Padroado

jurisdiction (Cranganore Archbishops) over the Syrian churches. The first task the new bishops had to face was to amalgamate in one harmonious whole the two

sections of this Church, that which had been under the Carmelites with that which had belonged to the Goan or Padroado jurisdiction, for the two had been for

long years in open antagonism. This union fortunately was successfully effected. The other task was to establish something like a proper administration and

control over the churches. This took longer time. The northern churches belonging to Trichur had not seen their prelates for perhaps a century, the two

Chaldean bishops had utilized the fact to their own advantage, and the troubles caused by them in these churches can easily be imagined; but with firmness

and patience a fair working administration was introduced.

The result may thus be briefly summed up. The Vicariate of Trichur had a Catholic Syrian population of 108,422 with eighty-three parish churches and twenty-

two chapels-of-ease, served by 118 priests of Syrian Rite, besides 23 Syrian Carmelite Tertiary monks, in two monasteries; there was also a convent of 24

native Tertiary nuns with a middle-class school of 33 girls. The bishop on taking charge found that there is practically no schools, except that one provided

for clerics; he took early steps to open as many elementary parish schools as possible; within nine years (1888-96) the vicariate was provided with no less

than 231 elementary parish schools for both sexes, educating over 12,000 children, besides a high school (St. Thomas' College), with 95 students; there was

also 56 boys in St. Aloysius's High School, under the Tertiary monks. A catechumenate was opened, where annually about 150 heathen converts were baptized; a

fine building was under construction for a suitable residence, and plans were prepared to house the above college in a handsome structure. This was the

condition of things when the bishop went to Europe on sick leave. The Vicariate of Kottayam had a Catholic population of 150,000, with 108 parish churches

and 50 dependent chapels, served by a numerous clergy of over 300 priests; it had 35 Tertiary monks besides novices, in five monasteries; also three convents

of native Tertiary Carmelite nuns educating girls, two orphanages under Tertiary Sisters of St. Francis, four catechumenates, two seminaries, with 96

students. The higher class clerical students of both vicariates attended the central Pontifical Seminary at Puttenpally. The parochial schools numbered 200,

but the number of pupils was not published. There were three English Schools: Mananam, 60; Campalam, 80; and another with 20 students.

In 1895 both vicars Apostolic happened to be absent on leave. During this period the Holy See decided on a change of regime, yielding to the wishes of the

people to grant them native bishops.

Divided into three vicariates with native bishops

The two vicariates described above were split into three, and they were styled Trichur, Ernaculam, Changanacherry; the new vicariate was formed of the

southern portion of Changanacherry. The changes were carried out under Leo XIII by Brief of 28 July, 1896, "Quae Rei Sacrae". Rev. John Menacherry, as Bishop

of Paralus, was appointed to Trichur. Rev. Aloysius Pareparampil, titular Bishop of Tio, was appointed to Ernaculam, and Rev. Mathew Makil, Bishop of

Tralles, was appointed to Changanacherry; all three received consecration from the Apostolic Delegate Mgr. Zaleski, at Kandy on 15 Oct., 1896.

At the time of these changes, the ecclesiastical returns of these three vicariates (1911) gave:

Trichur: Catholic population, 91,064; children being educated, 19,092;

Ernaculam: Catholic population, 94,357; children being educated, 9950;

Changanacherry: Catholic population, 134,791; children being educated, 2844.

Here beginneth the Life of Saint Thomas the Apostle.

Thomas is as much to say as abysm or double, which in Greek is said didimus; or else Thomas is said of Thomos, which is said division or parting. He was

abysm or swallow because he deserved to pierce the deepness of divinity, when at his interrogation Jesu Christ answered to him: Ego sum via, veritas et vita:

I am the way, truth, and life. He is said double because he knew Christ in his resurrection in double wise more than other knew, for they knew him but only

in seeing, but Thomas knew him both seeing and feeling. He is said division or departing, for he departed his love from the love of the world, and was

departed from the other apostles at the resurrection. Or Thomas is said as, appeared again, that is in the love of God by contemplation. He had there things

in him of which Prosper saith in the book of the Soul Contemplative, and demandeth what it is for to love nothing but to conceive the burning of him in his

thought, and the talent of God, and the hate of sin, and to forsake the world. Or Thomas is as much to say as alway going in the love and contemplation of

God. Or Thomas is as much as: My God, because he said, when he touched the side of our Lord: My God and my Lord.

Saint Thomas, when he was in Cæsarea, our Lord appeared to him, and said: The King of India, Gundoferus, hath sent his provost, Abbanes, for to seek men that

can well the craft of masons, and I shall send thee to him. And Saint Thomas said: Sir, send me over all save to them of India. And our Lord said to him: Go

thy way thither surely, for I shall be thy keeper, and when thou hast converted them of India, thou shalt come to me by the crown of martyrdom. And Thomas

said to him: Thou art my lord, and I thy servant; thy will be fulfilled. And as the provost went through the market, our Lord said to him: Young man, what

wilt thou buy? and he said: My lord hath sent me for to bring to him some that be learned in the science of masonry, that they might make for him a palace

after the work of Rome. And then our Lord delivered to him Saint Thomas the Apostle, and told to him that he was much expert in that work. And they departed

and sailed till they came in a city, where the king made a wedding of his daughter, and had do cry that all the people should come to this feast of this

marriage or else he would be angry. And it so happed that the provost and Thomas went thither, and an Hebrew maid had a pipe in her hand and praised ever

each one with some laud or praising. And when she saw the apostle she knew that he was an Hebrew because he ate not, but had alway his eyes firm toward

heaven. And as the maid sang tofore him in Hebrew, she said: The God of heaven is one only God, the which created all things and founded the seas. And the

apostle made her to say these words again. And the butler beheld him, and saw that Thomas ate not ne drank not, but alway looked upward to heaven. And he

came to the apostle and smote him on the cheek; and the apostle said to him, that in time to come it be pardoned to thee, and that now a wound transitory be

given to thee, and said: I shall not arise from this place till the hand that hath smitten me be eaten with dogs. And anon after, the butler went for to

fetch water at a well, and there a lion came and slew him and drank his blood, and the hounds drew his body into pieces, in such wise that a black dog

brought the right arm into the hall in the middle of the dinner. And when they saw this, all the company was abashed, and the maid remembered the words, and

threw down her pipe or flute, and fell down at the feet of the apostle. And this vengeance blameth Saint Austin in his book of Faustius, and saith that this

was set in of some false prophets, for this thing might be suspicious unto many things. Whether it be true or no it appertaineth not to me, but I wot well

that they should be like as our Lord teacheth, which saith: If any man smiteth thee on that one cheek, show and offer to him that other, and certainly the

apostle held within his courage the will of God and of dilection, and without forth he required example of correction. This saith Saint Austin. And then, at

the request of the king, the apostle blessed them that were new married, and said: Lord God give to these children the blessing of thy right hand, and set in

their minds the seed of life. And when the apostle was gone, there was found, in the hand of the young man that was married, a branch of palm full of dates;

and when he and his wife had eaten of the fruit they fell asleep, and they had one semblable dream. For them seemed that a king adorned with precious stones

embraced them, and said: Mine apostle hath blessed you in such wise that ye shall be partakers of the glory perdurable. Then they awoke, and told to each

other their dream. And then the apostle came to them and said: My king hath appeared right now to you, and hath brought me hither, the doors being shut, so

that my blessing may be fruitful upon you, and that ye may have the sureness of your flesh, the which is queen of all virtues and fruit of perpetual health,

and above the angels' possessions of all good, victory of lechery, lord of the faith, discomfiture of devils, and surety of joys perdurable. Lechery is

engendered of corruption, and of corruption cometh pollution, and of pollution cometh sin, and of sin is confusion engendered.

And he thus saying, two angels appeared to them and said: We be the two angels deputed for to keep you, and if ye keep well all the admonestments of the

apostle we shall offer to God all your desires. And then the apostle baptized them, and informed them diligently in the faith. And long time after the wife,

named Pelagia, was sacred with a veil, and suffered martyrdom, and the husband named Denis was sacred bishop of that city. And after this, the apostle and

Abbanes came unto the King of India, and the king devised to the apostle a marvellous palace, and delivered to him great treasure. And the king went into

another province, and the apostle gave all the treasure to poor people, and the apostle was alway in predications two years or thereabout ere the king came,

and converted much people without number to the faith. And when the king came and knew what he had done, he put him and Abbanes in the most deepest of his

prisons, and purposed fully to slay them and burn. And in the meanwhile Gad, brother of the king, died, and there was made for him a rich sepulchre, and the

fourth day he that had been dead arose from death to life, and all men were abashed and fled. And he said to his brother: This man that thou intendest to

slay and burn is the friend of God, and the angels of God serve him, and they brought me in to paradise, and have showed me a palace of gold and silver and

of precious stones, and it is marvellously ordained. And when I marvelled of the great beauty thereof, they said to me: This is the palace that Thomas hath

made for thy brother. And when I said that I would be thereof porter, they said to me: Thy brother is made unworthy to have it; if thou wilt dwell therein,

we shall pray God to raise thee so that thou mayst go buy it of thy brother, in giving to him the money that he supposed he had lost. And when he had said

this he ran to the prison and required of the apostle that he would pardon his brother that he had done to him, and then delivered him out of prison, and

prayed the apostle that he would take and do on him a precious vesture. And the apostle said to him: Knowest thou not that they which ween to have power in

things celestial set nought in nothing fleshly ne earthly? And when the apostle issued out of prison, the king came against him and fell down at his feet,

and required of him pardon. Then the apostle said to him: God hath given to you much great grace when he hath showed to you his secrets; now believe in Jesu

Christ and be ye baptized, to the end that thou be prince in the realm perdurable. And then the brother of the king said: I have seen the palace that thou

hast do make to my brother, and I am come for to buy it. And the apostle said to him: If it be the will of thy brother it shall be done. And the king said:

Sith it pleaseth God, this shall be mine, and the apostle shall make to thee another; and if peradventure he may not, this same shall be common to thee and

to me. And the apostle answered and said: Many palaces be there in heaven which be made ready sith the beginning of the world, that be bought by price of the

faith and by alms of your riches, which may well go tofore you to these palaces, but they may not follow you.

And after this, at the end of a month, the apostle made to assemble all them of the province, and when they were assembled he commanded that the feeble and

sick should be set apart by themselves. Then he prayed for them, and they that were well enseigned and taught said Amen. And forthwith came a clear light

from heaven which descended upon them, and smote down all the people and the apostle to the earth; and they supposed they had been smitten with thunder, and

so lay by the space of half an hour. After, the apostle rose and said: Arise ye up for my lord is come as thunder, and hath healed us; and anon they arose

all whole and glorified God and the apostle. Then began the apostle to teach them, and to show to them the degrees of virtue. The first is that they should

believe in God which is one essence, and treble or three in persons, and showed to them examples sensible, how three persons be in one essence. The first

example in a man is wisdom, and thereof cometh understanding, memory, and cunning. Cunning is of that thou hast learned the memory or mind, and retainest

that thou shouldest forget. And the understanding is that thou understandest this that is taught to thee and showed. The second example is that, in a vine be

three things, the stock, the leaf, and the fruit. The third example is that three things be in the head of a man, hearing, seeing, and tasting or smelling.

The second degree that they receive baptism. The third, that they keep them from fornication. The fourth, that they keep them from avarice. The fifth, that

they restrain them from gluttony. The sixth, that they keep their penance. The seventh, that they persevere and abide in these things. The eighth, that they

love hospitality. The ninth, that in things to be done they require the will of God, and that they require such things by works. The tenth, that they eschew

those things that be not for to be done. The eleventh, that they do charity to their enemies and to their friends. The twelfth, that they keep charity, and

do work by diligence to keep these things. And after his predication, forty thousand men were baptized, without women and small children.

And incontinent he went into the great India where he shone by miracles innumerable, for he enlumined and made to see Syntice, the friend of Migdonia, which

was wife of Carisius, cousin of the king of India. And Migdonia said to Syntice: Weenest thou that I may see him? Then Migdonia changed her habit by the

counsel of Syntice, and put herself among the poor women, and came whereas the apostle preached. And he began to preach of the maleurte and unhappiness of

this life, and said that this life is unhappy, wretched and subject to adventures, and is so slippery and fleeting, that when one weeneth to hold it, it

fleeth away. And after, he began to show to them by four reasons that they should gladly hear the word of God, and likeneth it to four manner of things:

first, unto a colour which lighteth the eye of our understanding; secondly, to a syrup or a purgation, for the word of God purgeth our affection from all

fleshly love; thirdly, unto an emplaister, because it healeth the wounds of our sins; and fourthly, unto meat, because the word of God nourisheth us, and

delighteth in heavenly love. And in like manner, like as all these things avail not to the sick man but if he take and receive them, in like wise the word of

God profiteth nothing to a languishing sick man, if he hear it not devoutly. And as the apostle thus preached, Migdonia believed in God, and refused the bed

of her husband. Then Carisius did so much that he made the apostle to be set in prison. And Migdonia went to him and asked him forgiveness, because he was

set in prison for her sake. And he comforted her sweetly, and said he would suffer it debonairly. And then Carisius prayed the king that he would send the

queen his wife's sister unto her, for to essay if she might turn her, and call her again from the christian faith. And the queen was sent thither, and when

she saw her, and knew of so many miracles as the apostle did, she said: They be accursed of God that believe not in his works. Then the apostle taught them

shortly that were there, four things; first, that they should love the church, honour and worship the priests, assemble them often in prayers, and often to

hear the word of God. And when the king saw the queen, he said to her: Why hast thou abided there so long? And she then answered: I had supposed that

Migdonia had been a fool, but she is right wise, for she hath brought me to the apostle, which hath made me to know the way of truth, and they be overmuch

fools that believe not the way of truth, that is to say, that they believe in Jesu Christ. And never after would the queen lie with the king. And then the

king was abashed, and said to his cousin: When I would have recovered thy wife I have lost mine, and my wife is worse to me than thine is to thee. Then the

king commanded that the apostle should be brought tofore him, his hands and feet bound; and was commanded that he should reconcile the wives to their

husbands. And then the apostle said to the king, in showing to him by three examples that, as long as he should be in the error of the faith they ought not

to obey them. That is to wit, by the example of the king, by example of the tower, and by example of the fountain, and said to him: Thou that art king wilt

have no services soiled ne foul, but thou hast cleanly servants and neat chamberers. And what weenest thou God loveth? Chastity and clean services. Am I then

to blame if I preach to thee to love God and his servants whom he loveth? I have made them clean servants to him; I have founded a tower; and thou sayst to

me that I should destroy it. Also I have dolven in the deep earth, and have brought forth a fountain out of the abysm, and thou sayst I should stop it. Then

the king was angry, and commanded to bring forth pieces of iron burning, and made to set the apostle on them all naked, his feet bound. And anon by the will

of our Lord, a fountain of water sourded and sprang up, and quenched it all. And then the king, by the counsel of his cousin, made him to be set in a burning

furnace, which was made so cold that the next day he issued out all safe, without harm. And then thereto, he said: king, thou art nothing more noble, ne more

mighty than be thy painters, said Carisius to the king: Make him to offer sacrifice to one of the gods only, in such wise that he fall in the ire of his God

that thus delivereth him. And as they constrained him and how despisest thou very God and worshippest a painting whom thou weenest to be thy God? Like as

Carisius hath said to thee, that my God should be angry when that I worshipped thy god. And if he be angered, it should be more to thy god than to me, for

when thou shouldest ween that I worshipped thy God, I should worship mine. And the king said: Why speakest thou to me such words? And then the apostle

commanded in Hebrew the devil that was within the idol that, as soon as he kneeled tofore the idol, he should anon break it in pieces. And the apostle

kneeled and said: Lo! see ye that I worship, but not the idol; I adore, but not the metal; I worship, but not the false image, but I honour and worship my

Lord Jesu Christ in the name of whom I command thee, devil, which art hid within this image, that thou break this false idol. And anon he molt it as wax. And

then the priests came lowing as beasts, and the bishop of the temple lift up a glaive and run the apostle through and said: I shall avenge the injury of my

god. And the king and Carisius fled away, for they saw that the people would avenge the apostle and burn the bishop all quick. And the christian men bare

away the body of the apostle and buried it worshipfully. Long time after, about the year of our Lord two hundred and thirty, the body of the apostle was

borne into Edessa, the city which sometime was said Rages, city of Media; and Alexander the Emperor bare it thither at the request of the Syrians. And in

this city no man might harbor Jew, ne paynim, ne tyrant, that should live. After this Abagar, king of this city, desired to have an epistle written with the

hand of our Lord, for if any men moved war against this city, they took a christian child, and set him on the gate, and he should there read the epistle, and

the same day, what for the virtue of the writing of our Saviour, as for the merits of the apostle, the enemies fled or else made peace.

Isidore, in the book of the Life of the Saints, saith thus of this apostle: Thomas, apostle and disciple of our Lord Jesu Christ, and like unto our Saviour,

preached the Gospel unto miscreants, to them of Persia and of Media, to the Hircanians and Bactrians, and he entering into the parts of the orient, pierced

through the entrails of the people. There demened his predication unto the title of his passion, and there was he pierced with a glaive and so died. And

Chrysostom saith that when Thomas came in to the parts of the three kings which came to worship our Lord he baptized them, and they were made helpers and

aiders of our Lord and of christian faith. Pray we then to this holy apostle, Saint Thomas, that he will be moyen unto our Lord that we may have grace of him

to amend us in this present life, that we may come into his everlasting bliss. Amen.

THE APOSTLE SAINT THOMAS

FOUNDED THE CHURCH IN CHINA

« O Dawn of the East, Splendour of Light Everlasting,

Sun of Righteousness, come and enlighten those who sit

in the darkness and shadow of death. »

(Advent antiphon, sung on the day

of the feast of St. Thomas the Apostle.)

What could have been the scoop of the year of the Olympic Games of Peking was intentionally hidden by both the Chinese and Western “right-thinking” milieus,

which such a discovery disturbs: archaeology proves beyond a doubt the founding of the Church in China by the Apostle St. Thomas between 65 and 68 a.d. Thus

China takes her place among the first countries in the world to be evangelised, and her Church can take pride in the title of “apostolic”.

This has been spoken about for several years now, and the “People’s Daily”, the official organ of the Chinese Communist Party, echoed it by announcing a

veritable « earthquake », if the fact proved to be true. It has been today, thanks to Pierre Perrier, a former researcher for the Dassault Aviation group and

a universally known specialist in the oral transmission of the Gospels, at the end of a thorough enquiry that he relates in his book “Thomas founds the

Church in China” (éd. du Jubilé, September 2008).

Such a discovery rehabilitates the tradition of certain Churches, in particular that of the Chaldean Church (Iraq) and of the Church of the Syro-Malabar rite

in Southern India called the “Christians of St. Thomas”, who have always considered the apostolate of the Apostle and the Christian establishment in China in

the first century of our era as facts. In the Chaldean breviary, for example, one can read: « By St. Thomas, the Kingdom of Heaven took wings and flew all

the way to the Chinese. »

Until recently, it was considered good taste to smile at such an assertion, and to regard it as a “legend” of bygone ages. Well, no! It is not a legend, but

an historical truth that is written in rock, and its impact is considerable for present-day China. You are incredulous, as the Apostle was? Come and see…

EVIDENCE THAT IS UNIQUE IN THE WORLD.

In order to see and to touch, you have to debark, at the end of a long journey in the Apostle’s footsteps, at the port of Lianyungang, – “Port-touch-cloud”.

It is located at the former mouth of the Yellow River, Huang-he, since diverted towards the Gulf of Bohai. This port, which still exists today, marks the end

of the road that linked the successive capitals of the Han Empire, Chang’An (today Xi’an) and Luoyang, to the China Sea (see map).

Map of the “Known World” in the first century of the Christian era, with its four great Empires: Roman, Parthian, Kushan, and Chinese. Its trade routes:

continuous line, the Silk Road (land), dotted line, the Spice Route (sea). From Apostolic times, the Gospel had been preached « to the ends of the world »:

in Rome (St. Peter) and as far as Spain (St. James) to the West, and to the East as far as the Indies and China (St. Thomas).

At the edge of Lianyungang, in the area around this ancient road, you pass alongside a rock face called Kong Wang Shan (Kong Wang Cliff) on which were

rediscovered, in the beginning of the 1980s, sculptures in bas-relief on a background lightly outlined with a chisel. There are three main figures, two

standing, and a third, a little higher up, seated. They are surrounded by other figures of smaller dimensions, some of them more recently sculpted (see our

plate). These vestiges were the object of an historical re-evaluation by Chinese scientists who advanced their dating to the year 65 a.d.

Who are these figures? Before answering this question, a brief historical reminder is necessary.

CHINA IN THE FIRST CENTURY OF OUR ERA.

The Chinese Empire was created in 221 b.c. by the king of the Ts’in, Qin Shihuangdi. This Chinese Caesar succeeded in imposing his authority on the internal

factions and containing the invasions of the Turco-Mongols, the Huns, against whom he had the Great Wall built.

The famous Han dynasty succeeded him and held supremacy in China for four centuries. This was the great era of the Middle Kingdom, to which the Chinese refer

when they call themselves “sons of Han”. Trade routes had been opened: the overland “Silk Road”, passing north of the Himalayas and, through Persia and

Syria, supplying the Roman Empire with the precious fabric; by sea also, following the “Spice Route”, beginning on the Chinese east coast, bypassing the

Indochinese Peninsula by the Strait of Malacca, then ascending in a direct line to the Ganges delta, taking advantage of the winter and summer monsoons.

In China at that time, two philosophies ruled over the world of spirits: one sought individual perfection, Taoism, and the other maintained the order of

human society, Confucianism.

According to the former, the sage must divest himself of his personality, of his individual self, of his intelligence even, in order to identify himself with

the rest of the Universe. This is the Tao (or Way). Needless to say, the Taoist sage scarcely concerns himself with the salvation of the people. Furthermore,

it is not with such principles that civilisations are built!

On the contrary, Confucianism is meant to be a school of wisdom which, without seeking to innovate, is based on respect due to “Heaven” and to ancestors,

preaching filial piety extended to all the relationships of a harmonious society: children-parents, wife-husband, subject-sovereign, man-“Heaven”. For

Confucius and his disciples, the good governance of the people is guaranteed by the harmony of the virtues of the prince with the order of “Heaven”, the

source of all power. It is, however, a “Heaven” that is hopelessly empty…

Only Mo-tseu, a wise Confucian (400 b.c.), invoked a personal and all powerful “Lord on high”, but his doctrine, which might be considered a preparation for

Christian revelation, was rejected as deviant by his peers.

According to Legge, the well-known translator of Chinese classics, « nothing hindered the religious, social and political reform of China as much as the

attachment of the government and Chinese scholars to Confucius » (quoted by Fr. Van Straelen, S. V. D.) L’Église et les religions non chrétiennes au seuil du

vingt et unième siècle, Beauchesne, 1994).

Deviations of all sorts (magic, sorcery, etc.), the rigid formalism of the official rites and above all the absence of transcendent answers to the mysteries

of human destiny: the meaning of suffering and death, life in the beyond, knowledge of the plans of the “Lord of Heaven”, had created in the souls of the

Chinese people and their elites a cruel void.

It is Jesus Christ and not Buddha who should have fulfilled their expectation.

BUDDHIST MONKS OR APOSTLES OF CHRIST?

When Pierre Perrrier was made aware of the existence of Kong Wang Shan, through the instrumentality of a priest from the “underground” Church – this detail

is not insignificant –, he took advantage of a colloquium at the University of Nanking to enquire at the Department of Studies of Popular Religions about

these bas-reliefs:

« They showed them to me, while affirming to me that these figures were the confirmation of the traditions relative to the arrival in China of the Buddhist

religion in the first century of our era. Then they gave me the precise date of their arrival, a date specified by written traditions [Chronicles of the

Later Hans]: 65 a.d. Furthermore, these traditions evoked the arrival of two Buddhist monks who had come from India in this first century, following a

request by the reigning emperor, who wanted to understand the meaning of the apparition in a dream in the previous year (in 64), at the foot of his bed, of a

tall person – he was thus not Chinese and came rather from the West – with his head encircled with a halo of light. » (p. 31)

This is in fact the official interpretation that is found in all the books dealing with Buddhism in China. « According to a widely held legend, Buddhism

officially entered China during the reign of Emperor Mingdi of the Han dynasty (58-75 a.d.) Following a dream in which he saw Buddha, this emperor sent a

mission to the Yut-che [in Northwest India] that would return three years later with the text of the “Sutra in forty-two chapters” and that also brought two

missionaries. For them, he built the first monastery: the Temple of the White Horse in Luoyang. It has been more or less proven that this story is a pious

legend, which was only invented around the middle of the third century. On the other hand, Chinese historical documents attest the existence, already in 65

a.d., in Pen-tch’eng, of a Buddhist community sponsored by the brother of the emperor. This community was composed of foreign missionaries and Chinese

faithful. » (François Houang, Le Bouddhisme, de l’Inde à la Chine, coll. Je sais, je crois, Fayard, 1963, p. 47) We will see further on what is to be thought

of it.

What a surprise it was for Perrier, examining one of the photos of Kong Wang at his disposal, to make out a cross, held at chest height by the tallest of the

two figures, wearing a turban, itself ornamented with a cross (Perrier thinks that the upper arm of the large cross has been effaced. It is also possible

that it was originally represented in this way, as was the practice in the early Church). The clothes of the person in question are not Chinese, neither are

those of his companion. The latter, who is smaller, presents his right hand, the palm open, in the attitude of someone attesting the truth, and carries in

his left hand an unrolled scroll, as far as the sculpture worn away with time allows it to be made out.

You did say: « 65 a.d. »? Here our French researcher leaps, because his research on the Malabar Christians in the south of India have led him to bring to

light traditions concerning the evangelising of India by the Apostle St. Thomas, and « there is no reason, he writes, not to base ourselves on the traditions

of the ancient apostolic Churches when they are coherent and complementary among themselves, in accordance with the rule for discerning heresies that St.

Irenaeus laid down and that must prevail over every doubtful result of research with a “secular” presupposition. In research on Church origins it is

tantamount to depriving oneself of reliable sources, when traditions have been retained in the liturgies. » (p. 83)

Ah! This calm challenging of “secular” and “rationalist” presuppositions is certainly pleasant to read! All the more is it so because Pierre Perrier

concludes: « To date, we have never observed noteworthy or rationally inexplicable discrepancies between these reliable traditions and archaeological

discoveries or analysis of available exterior texts: research in China fully confirms it. » (ibid.)

According to the tradition of the Church in India relative to St. Thomas, the Apostle finished his mission there in 64 a.d., and left from Meliapouram (near

Madras) for China at the beginning of… 65 a.d. The Indian and Chinese sources agree. There is thus a strong possibility that the two figures of Kong Wang

represent the Apostle himself with, at his side, his acolyte-interpreter.

THE DREAM OF EMPEROR MINGDI

Let us, however, come back to the dream that is related by the Chinese chronicles, represented at Kong Wang by small figures (on the drawing, above right).

« Mingdi had a dream in which he saw a tall blond man, the top of whose head was encircled with a halo […]. He was eight zhang tall [close to two metres]; he

was of golden complexion [or “like gold”]. »

Upon awaking, the emperor questioned those who were charged at the Court with interpreting dreams. They told him that the man that he had seen in the dream

did not originate from either China, or the North, or the South or the East, but that it was necessary to turn towards the West, where « tall, blond » men

could be found.

« One of them told him that in the West there existed a god called “luminous” [or “the Man-Light”]. The Emperor, desirous of enquiring about the true

doctrine, dispatched an envoy to the land of Tianzhu so that he might inquire about the precepts of the visionary. It is beginning from that time that

paintings and statues reached the Middle Kingdom and Ying, prince of Zhu, began to have faith in this Way [or in the person who preached it] and thanks to

that, the Middle Kingdom received it with esteem. »

With Pierre Perrrier, let us set aside the Buddhist interpretation, or rather appropriation of this dream, according to which this « Man-Light » would be

Buddha, called the “visionary”. The famous Silk Road, on which the first Buddhist monks were said to have come was closed at the time, and the first

archaeological traces of Buddhism only appear in China in the second century, in accordance with the commercial agreement signed in 158 a.d. with the Kushan

Empire, which opened China to exterior religious influences.

Is it not rather a prophetic apparition of Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, such as he showed Himself transfigured to His Apostles on Mount Tabor?

Or perhaps it is a vision of the risen and glorious Jesus, similar to what St. John saw and that he described at the beginning of his Apocalypse.

THERE IS ALSO A WOMAN!

The third figure represented on the Kong Wang cliff is harder to make out than the others. One can distinguish the head of a woman wearing, in the Parthian

style, a headband holding a veil in place. She seems to be reclining, or rather seated and leaning on a cushion. Originally she must have been carrying a

small child wrapped in swaddling clothes. Unfortunately, the child has practically disappeared, effaced by a sacrilegious hand. Nevertheless, when attempting

to reconstruct the original drawing, by comparing it with other bas-reliefs discovered in Christian Chinese tombs, our researcher had the happy and moving

surprise of finding a Virgin with the Child, the Child whom she presents to the adoration of the faithful. It is the earliest “Nativity” known in the whole

world! The discovery is important.

The Virgin Mary – because it is she! – indicates Her Child with the right hand, while turning Her gaze towards the Apostle who presents the Cross.

The composition of these three figures, Perrier writes, « conforms to the iconographic model (initially pagan) that was currently used among the Parthians in

the first century… These artists chiselled bas-reliefs on vertical rock faces, generally representing a couple of priests standing next to a seated divinity.

» (p. 55)

The artists who carved the three statues on the rock face of Kong Wang were not Chinese, but Persians from the Parthian Empire. The clothes of the two

figures represented standing are characteristic of Chaldea.

There is something even better: a signature confirms the Christian interpretation of the Kong Wang bas-relief.

A JUDEO-CHRISTIAN SIGNATURE

Between the two missionaries who are standing close to the Virgin with the Child, a large cross in the form of an x can be seen, surmounted by a sign that

can usually be read on early Christian sarcophagi.

Our author, a specialist on the Church in Apostolic times, sees in it a Judeo-Christian signature in Aramaic. It is not a Greek x-chi but the tav, the last

letter of the Hebrew and Aramaic alphabet, represented also as a capital letter by a cross in the form of an x. The tav, which marks on the forehead the

community of the elect in the vision of Ezekiel (9, 6), prefigures the Cross that delivers from the bondage of sin.

Likewise, it is not a Greek rho, but a Hebraic qof:

« The qof is a letter sign for Judeo-Christians, Perrier writes; the numerous graffiti from the first and second centuries in Palestine show it. The Judeo-

Christians used it alone or with the horizontal bar, under a half-moon and forming a cross. The bar changes this qof into the brass serpent raised on its

pole to bring salvation to those who had been bitten by the reptiles. Jesus had taken this image of the temptation of the Hebrew people in the desert to show

His disciples how He Himself should be raised up on the cross before the eyes of everyone in order to bring the pardon of sins. For every Aramaic-speaking

Christian reader, however, this serpent raised up on the tree of the cross is also the initial qof of the word qyamtha - resurrection. Finally, these

Christians also wanted to include a reference to the Trinity as a reminder that it was God Himself in His Son who had suffered on the Cross: thus they added

triangles to the ends of the branches of the cross, each of which recalled the presence of the Holy Trinity in the divine sacrifice. » (p. 81)

This is exactly what we observe at Kong Wang on the cross held by the Apostle and at several other places… In front of the Apostle is a rock sculpted in the

form of an altar, half of which is embedded in the rock face. This altar is marked with a line that delimits an upper altar cloth with a cross and two

circles (cosmic cross) on the left side. On the front side, there is another cross of the resurrection, similar to the larger one represented higher up with

the Aramaic qof and the triangular extremities recalling the Trinity. At the foot of this cross there is a leaning figure: « Is it Mary Magdalene or John? »

Furthermore, on a flat part of the adjacent rock, something that seems to be a chalice and a piece of bread, the host, under the cross. We thus have a

representation of the Eucharistic mystery.

THE VICTORY OF THE FAITH.

« If these four figures [the two missionaries, the Virgin and Her Child] and these carved symbols are manifestly Judeo-Christian and offer the most ancient

archaeological attestation of a complete whole prior to 70 a.d., showing together the Apostle Thomas and his collaborator-deacon, the Virgin and Her new-born

Child… » then, Pierre Perrier prudently suggests, that changes all our conceptions.

« These bas-reliefs, unquestionably contemporaneous with the arrival of St. Thomas in China, offer evidence that is unique in the world. Once the keys to the

Judeo-Christian interpretation have been given, there appear: 1° the Apostle presenting the Cross – 2° his deacon with his scroll as a memory aid – 3° the

Virgin carrying Her new-born Child. In addition to the deacon, whose written scroll attests the coming of the Messiah whom Israel was expecting, the Mother

and the Child who confirm the human birth of the Son of God, and the glorious Cross that represents His death and resurrection, this bas-relief presents the

apostolic testimony of the Apostle St. Thomas.

« The most unbelieving among the unbelievers whom the risen Jesus made touch his open wounds where His Heart beat, carried the Cross to the part of the world

that was farthest from the empty tomb of Jerusalem and the Upper Room of Mount Sion […]. How could it be possible for him not to testify to this to his

Chinese disciples? He had touched Him who is “the Way, the Truth and the Life”. » (p. 84-85)

« TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH »

Before ascending into Heaven, Our Lord Jesus Christ announced to His Apostles: « You will receive a power, that of the Holy Spirit who will come upon you,

and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. » (Ac 1:8) St. Paul would affirm regarding these

preachers of the Gospel: « Their voice has gone forth to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. » (Rm 10:18)

THOMAS, “ONE OF THE TWELVE”.

« My Lord and my God, how deep they are, the holes in Your feet and Your hands! How terrible is this gash in Your breast into the Heart, still burning with

the same sacred love, its beating as strong and regular as eternity, in which my trembling hand feels, palpitating and burning, Your tenderness like that of

a mother for her child. I adore and I love You… » (Statues of the Cathedral of Rheims)

Thus, according to the Tradition, St. James went to Spain, to the western extremity of the Roman Empire, while St. Thomas reached the extremity of the

eastern lands, at least those that were known at the time.

The Gospels are rather sparing of details relating to this Apostle, except for saying that he was « one of the Twelve », and that he was called Tôma, the

Aramaic variant of which, Tâ ma, means “twin”; this is why St. John adds in his Gospel, at the mention of this name, its Greek translation: “didumos,

Didymus” (Jn 21:2). Of whom is he the twin? We do not know… His true name is in fact Judah, and it seems that he was a native of Judaea. Before being called

by Christ, he was an itinerant goldsmith, decorator, sculptor and even architect. He is the patron saint of builders. Craftsman, manual worker, he needed to

see, to touch, in order to realise things…

St. John mentions St. Thomas four times in his Gospel. The best-known episode is that of the evening of the Resurrection. Thomas was not there. What could he

have been doing on that evening? On his return, the Apostles told him that they had seen the Lord, but he replied: « Unless I see the mark of the nails in

His hands and put my finger into the nail marks and put my hand into His side, I will not believe. » Eight days later, the Apostles were once again gathered

together,

« Because you see Me, you touch Me, and You kiss Me, Thomas, you are happy, you believe again, truly! Even happier and forever blessed are they who, in your

midst, have believed without having seen… My Face now engraved in you, remains in this world of darkness to guide and delight the eyes that are lost there.

Bear witness to my Truth! » (Abbé Georges de Nantes, The Kiss of the Disciple)

« Put your finger here and see My hands, and bring your hand and put it into My side, and do not be unbelieving, but believing. »

Then, Thomas fell to his knees:

« My Lord and my God!

– Because you have seen, Thomas, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed! » (Jn 20:24-28)

The hand of the Apostle, our Father writes, following the Fathers of the Church, was then « the hand of the Church that ascertains the truth of the

Resurrection of her Lord ».

APOSTLE OF THE INDIES.

According to the Acts of the Apostles and the traditions of the Eastern Churches, the Apostles evangelised first Jerusalem and the other cities of Judaea.

Then, after the Pentecost of 37 a.d., they left in groups of two in all directions, some taking sea routes, some taking overland routes (see map).

While Andrew and Phillip went North, following the Ionian coast, Bartholomew (Nathanael in the Gospels) and Thomas decided to take the route to the East,

towards China.

Our two Apostles passed through Edessa, founded a Christian community there, which would later form the rear base of all the missions to the East, and at the

head of which they left Addaï, one of the “seventy-two disciples”, who accompanied them.

At the beginning of the 40s, they arrived at Nineveh (the ancient capital of the Assyrian Empire, present-day Mosul in northern Iraq). Announcing the Good

News, they called on the Ninevites to do penance, following the example of the Prophet Jonas, and prescribing a three-day fast. The tradition of these three

days of fasting is still observed today in the Chaldean Church at the beginning of the liturgical year. Their testimony was received, and the Jewish

community of the city converted to Jesus Christ, true Messiah of Israel.

They returned to Jerusalem where the Apostles found Mary, the Mother of Jesus, who inquired, as can well be imagined, about the progress of the

evangelisation… Herod, however, had Peter imprisoned to please the Jews. His plan was to put him to death before the Pasch of the year 42. Miraculously set

free, Peter then left « for another place » (Ac 12:17), which was none other than Rome, the capital of the Roman Empire. As for Thomas, he left again for the

East, determined to go further east, as far as India. It seems that Bartholomew did not accompany him that far, or else he retraced his steps quite soon,

because he would soon finish his apostolic journeys in the marches of Armenia, martyred by the Jews who controlled the commercial approaches.

St. Thomas, from then on the sole Apostle, though surrounded by disciples, reached Ecbatana and Rhagae in Northern Persia (present-day Iran), then Herat and

Kandahar (today in Afghanistan). Obviously, St. Thomas only passed through – there would, alas, never be Christian communities in Afghan territory – then he

crossed the Indus at Taxila in order to evangelise the kingdom of Gandhara, the king of which, Gondephar, he converted. This long contested fact was

established thanks to the work of learned Jesuit and Lazarist missionaries. They discovered in present-day Pakistan coins with the name Gondopharès written

in Greek and a Parthian inscription mentioning a king Guduhvan, who reigned in the middle of the first century.

In this northern part of India, the Apostle founded a Christian community, which St. Pantaenus of Alexandria visited at the end of the second century, and

which sent a bishop to the Council of Nicaea (325).

Perhaps this was when St. Thomas envisaged going as far as China by the overland route, by following the famous “Silk Road”, but the passage was suddenly

closed by the war that broke out at that time between the Kushan Empire and the Parthian Empire, in other words, by a Mongolian invasion sweeping through

present-day Afghanistan.

THE “MEMORY OF MARY”.

We are in 51 a.d. Pierre Perrier, referring to a very ancient tradition that fixes the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in that year, has the Apostle St. Thomas

returning to Jerusalem. He will, however, once again arrive too late for the Event…

He set off again, with in his heart not only the memory of the Virgin Mary who had just been glorified in Her Body, but Her very testimony, gathered by St

John and put in writing by St. Luke. It already existed, if we believe the hypothesis of Pierre Perrier, in the form of a written scroll: “The Gospel of the

Childhood”, sfar d’talioutha, upon which the Apostle would not cease to meditate during his long peregrinations and which he would preach all the way to

China! This work of reconstruction of the passage from the oral tradition to the written Gospels, far off the beaten track of modern and Modernist exegesis

(cf. Évangiles de l’oral à l’écrit et Les colliers évangéliques, éditions du Jubilé, 2003) agree with what our Father, the Abbé de Nantes, wrote a few years

ago on “the Gospel of the Virgin”, the first and secret source of all the others.

THE GOSPEL OF THE VIRGIN

« Your divine plan, O Father thrice Holy, always goes before Your accomplishing Word, and its preparations always prefigure subsequent wonders. The continual

discovery of new wonders overwhelms me with tenderness and adoring devotion. Thus, having closed the Book of the Old Testament, scarcely have I opened the

Gospel when I discover therein this same Daughter of Abraham who had already been spoken about. Do You love Her so ardently? How could we not love Her? For

lo, this Immaculate Lady is greeted as no one has ever been before by the Angel from Heaven, and the whole secret of his Annunciation is communicated to Her

on Your behalf! You knew that She would keep these things, these words, which became divine acts the very moment they were received, in the secret of Her

heart, yes! But why? If not to make them known to us and thus establish on Her sole testimony the whole mystery of the Incarnation of Your Son! For She will

recount these things to St. John after everything has been accomplished, allowing him to bear witness to them and to dictate them to St. Luke, so that the

world might know and believe.

« Later on, the Apostles will recall, under the infallible inspiration of the Holy Spirit, all the facts and events of these incomparable historic moments of

the coming of the Son of God into the world for our spiritual and eternal salvation. Well! Having themselves become the “Twelve”, the great witnesses of

Christ to the crowds of catechumens, they will ever have amongst them, as the Mother of them all, their heeded counsellor, their Wisdom, the guarantor of the

Gospel. The link between the two Testaments, certainly the most discreet and unobtrusive as well as the most solid, for my heart made tender and devoted, is

She. »

(the Abbé de Nantes, To Spread the Faith Throughout the World,

CCR n° 311, July-August 1998)

This time, St. Thomas decided to leave by the south, to take the sea route that leads to India, by following the trading posts founded by Hebrew merchants

along the Spice Route. He debarked on the Indian coast at the end of summer 52, at Maliankara in present-day Kérala. This is where he founded the Malabar

Church, from which was born almost all of the Indian Church of today. He extensively evangelised the whole western coast until Pentecost 62 before passing to

the east, on the Coromandel coast, where he stayed from 62 to 64. He had perhaps made a reconaissance trip – in 54 or 55? – as far as Malasia, to the Straits

of Malacca, a commercial port through which one had to pass when going from the Indian Ocean to China. In the summer of 64, the year of the dream of Emperor

Mingdi, he once more went aboard a ship sailing to China. Taking into account the winds that vary according to the monsoons and after a winter call in

Malacca, he only arrived at his destination, Lianyungang, in the summer of 65.

This is what is related in the Chinese chronicles…

APOSTOLIC MISSION IN CHINA.

His mission in China would last three years, the length of time required to train disciples, deacons and elders, to organise a well-structured Church that

would subsist after the departure of its founding Apostle. He was accompanied by a collaborator acting as an interpreter, whom he would leave there as

resident bishop.

As soon as he arrived, St. Thomas undoubtedly went directly to the capital, Luoyang, where Emperor Mingdi resided. He seems to have given St. Thomas a free

hand to preach, and even to build a church, the chancel of which, according to the hypothesis of Mr. Perrier, was the base of a wooden tower reputed to be

the first pagoda in China.

The half-brother of Mingdi, Prince Liu Ying, converted at the preaching of St. Thomas. This prince, the Chronicles say, disappointed by the official religion

that had become formalist and artificial, was searching for the daô, the true “way” that leads to Heaven. It was not in Buddhism that he found it, but in the

Gospel! As he was the governor of the maritime province of Zhu, St. Thomas went to see hi