Saint Thomas was one of the twelve apostle of Jesus Christ. He was also called Didimos, which means ‘twin’, probably because of the paired fingers of his hand. The bible portrays him as a man of bravery and strong attachment to his Teacher. Jesus made the proclamation that ‘I am the way, the truth and the life’ (St. John 14:6) as an answer to the question of St. Thomas. After Jesus’ resurrection, when He appeared before his apostles, St.Thomas was not present there. When his colleagues told him later that they saw the resurrected Jesus, he was reluctant to believe it. He proclaimed, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it”. (St. John 20:26). It was his earnest desire to see his resurrected Master. Jesus respected his disciple’s wish and made an appearance again before the group in which St. Thomas was also present. Jesus invited him to put his fingers in his wounds and get convinced. In the ecstasy of the moment, S. Thomas addressed Jesus, “My Lord and My God” – which is a basic creed of Christian faith. The tradition says that when St. Thomas put his paired fingers in Jesus wounds, they got separated and became normal and other apostles kissed his hands which touched the resurrected Jesus Christ. The Christian practice of kissing the hands of bishops and priests is believed to have originated from this. St. Thomas is the patron of architects, geometricians, stone masons, builders and above all the patron Saint of India.
St. Thomas and India
Modern developments in archeology, anthropology, numismatics, place name studies, geography and trade route investigations have revealed evidence of trading which form the background to the st. Thomas tradition of India.
The lute of spices attracted traders from the Middle East and Europe to the many trading ports – Calicut,. Cranganore, Cochin,. Aleppey and Quilon – long before Christ.
According to the first century annals of Pliny the Elder and the author of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, Muziris in Kerala could be reached in 40 days time from the Egyptian coast purely depending on the South West Monsoon winds. The Sangam works Puraana Nooru and Akana Nooru have many lines which speak of the Roman vessels and the Roman gold that used to come to the Kerala ports of the great Chera Kings in search of pepper and other apices, which had an enormous demand in the West.
According to tradition, it was on a trading vessel plying between Alexandria (Egypt) and the Malabar coast that St. Thomas, the Apostle arrived to Maliankara village in 52 A.D. St. Thomas arrived on the south side of Periyar, on the north is Crangannore. Himself a Jew by birth, St. Thomas is said to have begun preaching the gospel to the already existing Jewish settlers in the Malabar Cost and other locals. According to the Acts of Thomas the first converts made by Thomas in India were Jewish people (Jews settled in India).
There is a wealth of corroborative evidence to support and no good reasons to doubt the living tradition of Thomas Christians that the Apostle arrived in Muziris (Kodungallore) in Kerala in 52 AD., preached the gospel, established seven Christian communities (churches) and moved on to other kingdoms, returning to Madras (Mylapore) in 72 AD., where he was martyred that year. Writers of the 4th century, St. Ephraim and St. John Chrysostem knew also about the relics of St. Thomas resting at that time in Edessa having been brought there from India by West Asian merchants. In 232 AD, the relics of the Apostle St. Thomas are said to have been brought from India to the city of Edessa, Mesopotamia. Eusebius of Caesarea (Historia Eeclesiastica III.1) quotes Origen (died mid 3rd century) as having stated that St. Thomas was the apostle to the Parthians, but Thomas is better known as missionary to India, which lies beyond Parthia to the East. The Syrian Christians believe that S. Thomas arrived in Kerala in the first century and converted some Brahmins to Christianity (the concept of converting Brahmins is only a legend because Brahmins arrive in Couth India only in 8th century during the reign of Gupta dynasty). However, these converts were India’s first St. Thomas Christians. They include Kalli, Kallarackal, Kalliankal, Manki, Madathalan, Plavunkal, Mattamuk, Manavasri, Pakalomattom, Sankarapuri, Thayil, etc. the church founded by St. Thomas must have been rather spread out in the sub continent including North-West, the Western and Eastern coasts of the Peninsula, probably also reaching Sri Lanka. Tradition associates the ministry of St. Thomas with the Indo-Parthian king Gondophares in North and with King Vasudeva of the Kushan dynasty in the South. The St. Thomas Tomb at Mylapore (Chennai) and the legends associated with it clearly connect St. Thomas with India
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India
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