St. Thomas: Apostle to India

One of the fun things about coming to Chennai is getting to spend some time with the life of an Apostle of Jesus. Remember "Doubting" Thomas? The same guy who is credited with both "doubting" Jesus' resurrection (i.e. "unless i put my fingers into His hands, and my hand in His side, i will not believe" - John 20:24), and also acknowledging His divinity upong doing so (i.e. "My Lord and my God!" - John 20:28)? Did you know that once dispersed from Jerusalem, he actually made his way all the way to India? He arrived sometime around 50 AD, i think, and immediately began speaking to the people he found there about the Good News of Jesus. Around about 70 AD, he was murdered/martyred for his faith on the top of a hillside by a spear through the back while he knelt in prayer. Later, his bones were taken from the hillside and he was buried near the beach in what is now modern day Chennai. Both the site of his martyrdom and also his burial are now critical Roman Catholic pilgrimage sites, and there are chapels or churches erected over each. In each place, Thomas is lovingly remembered and appreciated for being the "Apostle to India", and the start of the Christian faith in that nation dates all the way back to him.

St. Thomas Mount

The hillside where Thomas was martyred is called St. Thomas Mount. It is near Chennai's international airport, and the roar of landing or launching planes is constant. As you ascend the hillside, reminders that the place is sacred and intended to be a place of prayer, meditation and reflection abound. If you want to take photographs while there, you have to pay an extra (minimal) fee, and you will also need to be prepared to take your shoes off before entering the chapel that now sits over the site where Thomas was killed.

In the chapel, there are four main points of interest. In addition to the small altar and sparse pews with kneeling or praying parishoners (they still hold regular mass in the chapel, by the way, i think), there are 3 reliquaries at the front. The first is a bone fragment of Thomas encased in a vacuum-sealed cross. The second is an ornate stone cross that Thomas himself supposedly carved. And the third is an icon of Mary and Jesus that Luke supposedly painted and gave to Thomas, who brought it with him to India when he arrived. Finally, in the chapel, the martyrdom of each of the 12 Apostles is featured, each in a painting depicting the apostle and also the method of their death.

St. Thomas Basilica

While you would think that they might have buried Thomas closer to where he was killed, his followers decided to put him somewhere else. That spot is now the site of St. Thomas Basilica, and is some 15 km away from the Mount. However, it's an absolutely stunning cathedral, largely made out of white marble, and glistens, as Boromir would say of Gondor in LOTR, "like a spike of burnished silver, glistening in the morning light."

At the site, there is a library, the church itself (where the team here is posing), a museum of relics and other related items (they have a small case with [supposedly] the remaining lance/spear fragments of the spear that pierced Thomas as he knelt praying), and then the tomb of the Apostle himself downstairs.

One interesting legend told about Thomas is called "The Girdle of St. Thomas". According to the story, there was a huge tree that no man could move that had fallen across a road that the Apostle was travelling. When he was told that the obstacle was immovable by the local king, he simply took off the rope around his waist (i.e. "girdle"), told the king about the Power of Christ, tied the rope around one end of the tree, and then hauled it across the road and out of the way of the traffic. The king was so amazed that he instantly granted Thomas permission to preach his Good News to the people of his district.

Below the flooring of the Basilica is the actual tomb itself. The basement walls and floors are covered with white marble, and while you can hear every single solitary sound (no batting or acoustic baffling, and marble reverberates sound something fierce), everyone stays exceptionally silent in the little chamber. There is a plaster replica of Thomas resting peacefully in a Snow White-ian glass case (the actual burial site is located some 10 feet below the case), and there is another reliquery with a hermetically sealed bone fragment to the right of the exhibit.

Roman Catholic pilgrims and tourists from all over come to visit this site, and i tell you, it's something you really should make a point to see if you're ever in Chennai.

Click here to see Wikipedia entry for Thomas the Apostle.