Feast day: 3 July
Saint Thomas the Apostle
Sanctus Thomas Apostolus
The apostle who refused to believe without seeing and then made the greatest confession of faith in the Gospels, 'My Lord and my God'; ancient tradition sends him to evangelise India, where a Christian community bears his name to this day.
- Born
- Early 1st century, Galilee
- Died
- Traditionally 72, Mylapore near Madras (India), speared
- Canonization
- Venerated as apostle and martyr from antiquity; his cult in India is documented from the early centuries.
- Country
- Holy Land and India
Biography
Courage before doubt
John's Gospel gives Thomas three scenes. When Jesus resolves to return to Judea despite the threat of stoning, it is Thomas who says, 'Let us also go, that we may die with him' (John 11:16). At the Last Supper he asks the question that draws out the answer 'I am the way, the truth and the life' (John 14:5-6).
'My Lord and my God'
Absent at the first appearance of the risen Christ, he demanded to touch the wounds. Eight days later Jesus returned and offered them to him; Thomas answered with the clearest profession of Christ's divinity in the New Testament (John 20:24-29). The Fathers saw his doubt as providential: his hands verified what the Church would believe.
The mission to India
A tradition already known to Origen and Ephrem, and elaborated in the third-century apocryphal Acts of Thomas, sends him to the Parthians and then to India, where he is said to have founded churches along the Malabar coast and died pierced by lances at Mylapore. The apocryphal details are legendary, but the antiquity and continuity of the Saint Thomas Christians of Kerala is historically remarkable. Saint John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI both honoured this tradition in their catecheses.
Timeline
- c. 30 — 'Let us also go, that we may die with him'
- c. 33 — Confesses the risen Christ: 'My Lord and my God'
- ~c. 52 — Traditional arrival on the Malabar coast of India
- ~c. 72 — Martyred at Mylapore
- 3rd c. — Relics venerated at Edessa
- 1258 — Relics translated to Ortona, Italy
Dates marked ~ are traditional or debated among historians.
Symbols
Lance or spear — The instrument of his martyrdom in India.
Carpenter's square — The Acts of Thomas call him a builder; hence his patronage of architects.
Touching the wounded side — Faith born of encounter with the risen and wounded Christ.
Virtues & spiritual lessons
Honesty that refuses easy piety, courage ready to die with Christ, and a faith that, once given, went to the ends of the earth.
Importance in the Church
His confession is the christological summit of John's Gospel and a foundation of the Church's faith in the divinity of Christ; his mission is the root of the ancient Christianity of India.
Quotes
“My Lord and my God!”
John 20:28
“Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
John 11:16
Prayers
Prayer of Saint Thomas at the elevation
My Lord and my God! Give me, Lord, the faith that does not demand proof, the hope that does not weaken in darkness, and the love that goes wherever you send it. Amen.
Latin: Dominus meus et Deus meus!
The invocation, taken from John 20:28, is traditionally said at the elevation of the Host.
Places
San Thome Basilica, Mylapore, Chennai (India) — Built over the traditional site of his tomb.
Cathedral of Ortona (Italy) — Where his relics have rested since 1258.
Scripture
John 20:24-29 — The doubt and the confession of Thomas.
Entries are drawn from the Roman Martyrology, the General Roman Calendar, canonization records of the Holy See, and the saints' own writings. Where a date, quotation or attribution is uncertain, it is marked as such. (63 saints)