“Thomas said to Him, ‘Master, we don‘t know where You are going. How can we know the way?‘
John 14: 5-6
Yeshua said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life! No one comes to the Father except through Me.‘“
Saint Thomas the Apostle in India
“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 missin to espouse India to the One-Begotten.“
Saint Ephrem of Syria about Saint Thomas the Apostle in one of his hymns
Today, on the 3rd July, is the feast day of Saint Thomas the Apostle. According to the tradition of the “Thomas Christians“ in Kerala, India, Saint Thomas reached Muziris, a city on the Malabar Coast, in the year 52, taught the people of Kerala the Way of the Gospel, established seven church communities there, and died as a martyr in Mylapore twenty years later. The site of his martyrdom is called “Saint Thomas Mount“, and is even revered by Muslims.
There were Jewish colonies in India in the 1st century – so these, first of all, were addressed and converted to the faith by Saint Thomas, who is believed to have come to India in the company of a Jewish merchant by the name Abbanes.
“Thomas the apostle was at Caesarea when the Lord appeared to him, saying: ‘Gundofor, king of India, has sent his provost Abbanes to find a man skilled in architecture. Come along and I will send you with him.‘ Thomas answered: ‘Lord, send me anywhere you wish except India.‘ God replied: ‘Go in safety, because I will be your guardian; and when you have converted the Indians, you shall come to me with the palm of martyrdom.‘ Thomas: ‘You are my Lord and I am your servant: your will be done.‘“
Jacobus de Voragine: The Golden Legend. Readings on the Saints, Princeton University Press 1993, p. 30
According to this apocryphal legend, Saint Thomas meets Abbanes, travels with him to India, and comes to the court of the king of India. This king wants to have a palace built in the Roman style.
“Thomas drew up the plans for a magnificent palace, and the king gave him a large store of treasure so that he might get on with the building of the palace. Then the king set out for another province; and the apostle distributed to the people all the money he had received from the king. During the two years of the king‘s absence the apostle was zealous in preaching and converted great multitudes to the faith.“
Jacobus de Voragine: The Golden Legend. Readings on the Saints, Princeton University Press 1993, p. 32
And that is why Saint Thomas is the patron saint of architects…
“Then Thomas began to teach the people and explained to them the twelve degrees of virtue. The first degree is to believe in a God one in essence and trine in persons. (…) The second degree of virtue consists in receiving baptism; the third in abstaining from fornication; the fourth in controlling greed; the fifth in shunning gluttony; the sixth in doing penance; the seventh in perseverance in good works; the eighth in generous care of strangers; the ninth in seeking the will of God and doing it willingly; the tenth in seeking out what God does not want us to do and not doing it; the eleventh in love of friends and enemies; the twelfth in watchful care to observe all this. And when the apostle had finished his preaching, he baptized nine thousand men, not to mention the women and children.“
Jacobus de Voragine: The Golden Legend. Readings on the Saints, Princeton University Press 1993, p. 33
The apocryphal book cited in The Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine is known as the Acts of Thomas, a book composed in east Syria probably between 180-230 A.D. Yet Jacobus de Voragine also quotes Saint Augustine of Hippo, who was quite critical of this book, saying,
“The Manicheans read apocryphal books that were written under apostles‘ names by unknown fablemongers.“
Saint Augustine of Hippo; quotation from: Jacobus de Voragine: The Golden Legend. Readings on the Saints, Princeton University Press 1993, p. 31
The Manicheans were the followers of a man named Mani whose teaching was a sort of mix of Christianity, Buddhism and Zoroastrianism and who, being from Iran, having grown up in a sect strongly influenced by Gnosticism, had himself travelled to India. So maybe he brought some kernels of truth back with him concerning Saint Thomas, as received from the oral tradition of the Thomas Christians, mixing it then with his many errors. Or maybe the elements of truth that might be contained in the Acts were coming directly from the Christians of east Syria, a region which is in general connected with Saint Thomas the Apostle as we will see.
Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, living in the 4th century like Saint Augustine, warns his disciples of reading another quite well-known apocryphal book, the Gospel of Thomas:
“Let none read the gospel according to Thomas, for it is the work, not of one of the twelve apostles, but of one of Mani‘s three wicked disciples.“
Saint Cyril of Jerusalem
Let us leave these apocryphal sources behind, then, and note that not only Saint Ephrem the Syrian but various Church Fathers testified that Saint Thomas had been the missionary to India. Among them: Saint Ambrose of Milan, Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, Eusebius, Saint John Crysostom, and later, in the 7th century, Saint Isidore of Seville.
“He preached the Gospel to the Parthians, the Medes, the Persians, the Hircanians, and the Bactrians. Setting foot on the shores of the Orient and penetrating into the interior, he preached to the peoples there until the day of his martyrdom. He died from the thrust of a lance.“
Saint Isidore of Seville; quotation from: Jacobus de Voragine: The Golden Legend. Readings on the Saints, Princeton University Press 1993, p. 35
Saint Ephrem of Syria who praised how Saint Thomas had “espouse(d) India to the One-Begotten“ lived in the city of Edessa for many years, a city in Upper Mesopotamia – east Syria. Remains of the body of the Apostle of India were brought to Edessa in the 3rd century – “Edessa thus became the blessed city by possessing the greatest pearl India could yield“, as Saint Ephrem tells us in the very same hymn.
“Long afterwards, around the year of our Lord 230, Emperor Alexander, at the request of the Syrians, transferred the apostle‘s body to the city of Edessa (…).“
Jacobus de Voragine: The Golden Legend. Readings on the Saints, Princeton University Press 1993, p. 35
Legend of Saint Thomas‘ martyrdom, and the Syro-Malabar Church of Kerala, India
One can hardly doubt that the tradition of the Thomas Christians in India is ancient. Their liturgy is counted among those of the East Syriac Rite. Syriac (also called “classical Syriac“ or “Aramaic Syriac“) is an Aramaic dialect, Aramaic being one of the Semitic languages, thus related to other Semitic languages like Hebrew and Arabic.
This dialect was spoken in ancient days by the Aramaic-speaking Christians of Syria and, in fact, throughout the Middle East. Jesus spoke the Galilean dialect of Aramaic. Some books of the Old Testament canon were written in Aramaic, for example the book of Daniel.
The name Thomas is the Greek transliteration of an Aramaic / Hebrew name (תאם) meaning “twin“. The Greek “Didymus“ occuring in many Bible translations has the very same meaning.
In the apocryphal literature, one often reads of “Judas Thomas“. It is possible, then, that Thomas was an epithet, a second name to distinguish him from other people called Judas. Then, again, the name Judas can also simply mean “Jew“ – so maybe there were oral traditions calling him the “Jew Thomas“?
Another question that might come to one‘s mind is this: If he was called “the Twin“ – whose “twin“ was he? Or is it a nickname because of some striking resemblance? Well, Jacobus de Voragine quotes Saint Isidore of Seville saying,
“Thomas, a disciple of Christ who bore a resemblance to the Savior (…).“
Saint Isidore of Seville, quotation from: Jacobus de Voragine: The Golden Legend. Readings on the Saints, Princeton University Press 1993, p. 35
The people living in Kerala who Saint Thomas converted were both Jews and Hindus. It is said that he was killed by Hindu priests.
“Carisius said to the king: ‘Command him to sacrifice to the god of the sun. That will bring down on him the wrath of his god, who so far has been protecting him.‘ So they tried to force Thomas to do this, but he said to the king, ‘You are greater than the things you make, yet you spurn the worship of the true God and worship a handmade idol instead. You think, as Carisius does, that my God will be angered with me after I worship your god; but it is against your god that he will be angered, and he will destroy him the moment I adore him. If my God does not destroy yours when I offer my worship, I will offer sacrifice: if the contrary, promise me that you will believe my God.‘ To this the king retorted: ‘How dare you speak to me as equal to equal?‘
Jacobus de Voragine: The Golden Legend. Readings on the Saints, Princeton University Press 1993, p. 34-35
Now the apostle, speaking in Hebrew, commanded the demon who was in the idol to demolish it as soon as he bent the knee before it. Then, falling to his knees, he said: ‘See, I adore, but not this idol; I worship, but not this metal; I adore, but not this graven image. I adore my Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name I command you, O demon lurking inside, to destroy the idol!‘ And at once the image melted as if it were made of wax. At this all the priests bellowed like cattle, and the high priest of the temple, raising his sword, drove it through the apostle, crying: ‘Thus shall I avenge the insult done to my god!‘ The king and Carisius fled, seeing that the people wished to avenge the apostle and burn the high priest alive. The Christians meanwhile carried away the saint‘s body and gave it honorable burial.“
Thus was fulfilled what the Apostle had said to the other disciples, when they had been on their way to Lazarus’ tomb at Bethany near Jerusalem, showing a readiness for martyrdom together with Jesus:
“‘Let‘s go too, so that we may day with Him!‘“
John 11: 16
The Catholic Christians of Kerala have preserved since ancient days some interesting and unique traditions. For example, Holy Thursday, the day when Christ ate the Pesach with the Twelve and instituted the Eucharist, is a very important day for them. On this night they have a custom of eating unleavened Passover bread (called Pesaha appam) and drinking Passover coconut milk (called Pesaha pal).
The head of the family takes the bread, dips it into the milk, and passes it around. This is a tradition that also the Cochin Jews of India observe – Jews who claim that their presence in India goes back to the time of King Solomon.
The wedding customs of the Catholic Christians of Kerala are similar to those of the Ethiopian Church about which my cousin once told me, as she had spent some weeks in Ethiopia: man and wife are dressed like a king and a queen with crowns placed on their heads. That suggests that these traditions have common roots. In fact, you will find this kind of wedding ceremony in all Eastern Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. And the common roots of the crowning of the wedding couple are coming from the Jewish tradition: The Talmud says that the crowns were part of the ancient Jewish wedding ritual.
The musical style of the Malabar Christians and Jews is also similar, and it is distinct from native Indian music. The liturgical music of the Thomas Christians clearly is related, just like their whole liturgy, to ancient Syriac forms as found in the Middle East.
And when a father of the tradition of the Thomas Christians blesses his child, he does so with a formula that has a quite Jewish tone to it:
“God gave his blessing to Abraham, Abraham gave that blessing to Isaac, Isaac gave that blessing to Jacob, Jacob … to my forefathers, my forefathers … my parents, and my parents … to me. Now, dear son (daughter), I give that blessing to you.“
A father‘s blessing in the tradition of the Thomas Christians
As one can guess, Thomas is a very popular name to this day among the Christians of Kerala. My cousin and me received the Sacrament of Confirmation in June 2019 in a Church of perpetual Eucharistic Adoration and with a strong Divine Mercy devotion, in the midst of our Babylonian exile, from the hands of Pater Tom, a Vincentian priest from Kerala, India. So for us, the reception of this sacrament is forever linked with a son of Saint Thomas and a son of Saint Vincent de Paul (1581-1660), the father of his order, the “Congregation of the Mission“.
A few weeks later we witnessed for the first (and so far only) time a Eucharistic celebration of the Syro-Malabarian Rite, celebrated by our Indian priests on the feast day of Saint Vincent de Paul.
This rite is known under titles such as “Liturgy of Addai and Mari“ or “Holy Qurbana of Mar Addai and Mar Mari“ (“Qurbana“ means Eucharist). Thus, the liturgy is connected with the names of two saints who spread the faith in Syria and Persia: Saint Addai and Saint Mari. About them tradition tell us that the latter was a disciple of the former, and Saint Addai is said to have been one of the 72 disciples of Jesus mentioned in the Gospel accounts, who was sent by Saint Thomas to Edessa to heal King Abgar. He then evangelized the region.
The anaphora of this liturgy shows similarities to the one described in the Didache (a Christian teaching manual from the first century also known as the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles to the nations), as it is a Eucharistic prayer lacking the Institution Narrative and bearing traces of the Jewish table blessings.
In the Roman Rite, the Institution Narrative was introduced by Saint Alexander I., the fifth bishop of Rome, who died as a martyr in 119. He became Pope in the early years of the second century. So before that time, the Eucharistic prayer of the Roman Rite was also less elaborate. Today, the Syro-Malabarian Rite includes some Roman Rite elements – for example the Institution Narrative.
“All hail you sanctifying altar! All hail you tomb of our Lord! May the Eucharist we have received from you be unto us the pardon of our iniquities and the forgiveness of our sins. We do not know whether we may return to offer this sacrifice again. Amen.“
Parting prayer of the Syro-Malabarian Rite
Devotion to the Five Holy Wounds of Christ
Recently I looked for devotional prayers venerating the Five Holy Wounds of Jesus – the wounds in His hands, His feet, and His side. I read some articles on the history of this devotion. Obviously, the history begins shortly after Christ‘s resurrection – with the Apostle Saint Thomas:
“One of the Twelve, Thomas called the Tiwn, was not with them when Yeshua came. The other disciples were saying to him, ‘We‘ve seen the Lord!‘ But he replied to them, ‘Unless I see the nail prints in His hands, and put my finger into the mark of the nails, and put my hand in His side, I will never believe!‘
John 20: 24-28
Eight days later the disciples were again inside, and Thomas was with them. Yeshua comes, despite the locked doors. He stood in their midst and said, ‘Shalom aleichem!‘ Then He said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here, and look at My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Stop doubting and believe!‘ Thomas answered and said to Him, ‘My Lord and my God!‘“
It is interesting to me that there was an instinct in Saint Thomas telling him maybe something along the lines of: “They tell me that the Lord has appeared to them. But I will not believe it unless I can touch His wounds, the wounds He received in His passion on the cross. Then I can be sure it is Him – and not a strange illusion, or a deception of the devil projecting a vision. Besides: we Jews believe in the resurrection of the flesh. If our Master is truly risen, then He must have a body. A body I can really touch and feel with my hands. He cannot be a ghost.“
Thanks to Saint Thomas’ skepticism and realism, this story is clearly and strongly conveying to us that the risen Christ still bears the marks of His suffering, that the risen Christ still is Christ crucified, and that he rose in the flesh, in a corporal manner, with the body He had assumed from the Blessed Virgin – not as a “spirit“. That is as anti-gnostic and as anti-spiritualist as it can get.
Saint Thomas, Holy Apostle, pray for us!