India GOApostle Thomas: the twin, the doubter and the apostle of India
ܡܪܝ ܬܐܘܡܐ ܫܠܝܚܐ
The doubting apostle who, by tradition, landed in Kerala in 52 AD and founded the church of the Thomas Christians; martyred near Chennai.
Thomas comes from the Aramaic for “twin”, and the Greek Didymus means the same. In the Gospel of John he is the disciple who would not believe in the Resurrection until he saw the wounds. In India he is something else: the apostle whom the Saint Thomas Christians of Kerala name as their founder, and whose tomb, by tradition, lies under the white neo-Gothic basilica of San Thome in Mylapore, Chennai, built over it by the Portuguese in 1523.
Story
The Acts of Thomas tell that when the apostles cast lots for the world, India fell to Thomas, who begged to be sent anywhere else; sold as a carpenter to an Indian king's agent, he went. Kerala's tradition has him arriving by sea in 52 AD, baptising Brahmin families and founding churches from Kodungallur to Kollam before a spear ended his life on a hill near Chennai. Historians argue; the Syriac liturgy and the stone crosses with Persian inscriptions are older than any church in Goa.
ܡܪܝ ܘܐܠܗܝ
“My Lord and my God!”
John 20:28
Thomas in the Gospels
John’s Gospel gives Thomas his most famous scene (John 20:24–29). Absent when the risen Jesus first appears to the disciples, he says he will not believe unless he puts his finger in the marks of the nails. A week later he sees and answers with the words printed above: “My Lord and my God”. The phrase “doubting Thomas” comes from that refusal, though the scene ends in one of the clearest confessions of faith in the New Testament.
The longer story of his mission comes from the Acts of Thomas, an apocryphal text written in about 180–230. The Gospel of Thomas, a separate collection of sayings, never entered the Bible: the early Church rejected it, and Cyril of Jerusalem warned his listeners not to read it.
Kerala: the seven churches
By the Kerala tradition Thomas landed at Muziris, today’s Kodungallur, around 52 AD, and founded seven and a half churches along the coast and inland. The places usually named are Kodungallur, Palayoor, Kottakkavu (North Paravur), Kokkamangalam, Niranam, Nilackal, Kollam and Thiruvithamcode, the last counted as the “half church”. Most of the present buildings are much later, but the communities that keep them, the Saint Thomas Christians or Nasranis, still follow liturgies of the Syriac tradition.
Whether the apostle really reached India is a question historians leave open; the tradition itself is very old.
Chennai: the tomb and the Mount
Tradition says Thomas was killed by a spear in 72 AD on St Thomas Mount, a rocky hill near the airport, and buried at Mylapore by the sea. Portuguese missionaries came looking for the tomb in 1521 and built a church over it in 1523. The present San Thome Basilica, white and neo-Gothic with a 45-metre spire, was rebuilt in the 1890s and consecrated in 1896; it became a minor basilica in 1956 and a national shrine in 2004, and John Paul II prayed there in 1986.
Most of the relics are no longer in India: by tradition the greater part was taken to Edessa in 232, and since 1258 relics of the apostle have been kept in Ortona, Italy. The tomb chapel at San Thome is still the place in India that pilgrims mean when they say “Thomas is buried here”.
Feast days and the Malayattoor climb
The Roman Catholic Church (since 1969), the Syro-Malabar Church and most modern calendars keep the feast of St Thomas on 3 July; older Latin and Book of Common Prayer calendars keep 21 December. Eastern Orthodox churches remember him on 6 October, which in churches that follow the Julian calendar, such as the Russian Orthodox Church, falls on 19 October. The great Indian pilgrimage, though, is Malayattoor Perunnal in Ernakulam district of Kerala, near Kochi: from Lent through the weeks after Easter people climb a forested hill barefoot to the hilltop shrine of St Thomas, calling the same phrase in unison. The main day, Puthunjayar, is the first Sunday after Easter: in 2027 it is expected on 4 April.
❓ FAQ
Did the Apostle Thomas go to India?
The Saint Thomas Christians of Kerala hold that he landed there around 52 AD and died near Chennai in 72 AD. Historians cannot confirm it, but the tradition is very old.
Which apostle is buried in India?
Thomas. His tomb, by tradition, is in San Thome Basilica in Mylapore, Chennai, although by tradition most of his relics left India for Edessa in 232, and relics of his have been in Ortona, Italy, since 1258.
Why is Thomas called the twin?
Thomas is Aramaic for “twin”, and his Greek name Didymus means the same. Early Syriac texts call him Judas Thomas.
How did the Apostle Thomas die?
By tradition he was killed with a spear in 72 AD on St Thomas Mount near Chennai.
Why is the Gospel of Thomas not in the Bible?
It is a collection of sayings that the early Church did not accept as canonical; in the 4th century Cyril of Jerusalem told Christians not to read it.
Did the Apostle Thomas have a wife?
The New Testament says nothing about a wife.