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About Thomas – today is Thomas’s Sunday
According to tradition, this saint was assigned to evangelise the Parthians, Medes, and Persians during the Apostles’ dispersion following Pentecost. Upon making it to India, he brought the Faith to the Malabar coast, where a sizable native community still identifies as “Christians of St. Thomas. According to tradition, Thomas was killed in an accident when a fowler shot at a peacock and struck Thomas instead. After his passing, some of his relics were sent to Edessa, while the remainder were maintained in what is now India. They are still preserved at Chennai, Mylapore, India’s San Thome Basilica. The relics taken to Edessa were moved in 1258 to Italy, to the Cathedral of St. Thomas the Apostle in Ortona, Italy. Saint Thomas’ skull is thought to be interred at the Monastery of Saint John the Theologian on the Greek Island of Patmos.
In art, Saint Thomas is commonly depicted as a young man holding a scroll, or as a young adult touching the resurrected Christ’s wounds.
Saint Thomas was mentioned in several texts, including one document called The Passing of Mary, which claims then-apostle Thomas was the only one to witness the Assumption of Mary into heaven. At the same time, the other apostles were transported to Jerusalem to witness her death.
While the other apostles were with Mary, Thomas was left in India until after her first burial, when he was transported to her tomb and saw her bodily assumption into heaven, when her girdle was left behind.
In versions of the story, the other apostles doubted Thomas’ words until Mary’s tomb was discovered to be empty except for her girdle. Thomas and the girdle were often depicted in medieval and early Renaissance art.
- Catholic Online (2014). Catholic Online. [online] Catholic Online. Available at: https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=410.
- Thomas the Apostle. (2023, April 7). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_the_Apostle