'' by
Peter Paul Rubens, 1636–1638, in the
National Gallery Prague According to Syrian Christian tradition, Thomas was killed with a spear at
St. Thomas Mount in
Chennai on 3 July 72 AD, and his body was interred in Mylapore. Latin Church tradition holds 21 December as his date of death.
Ephrem the Syrian states that the Apostle was killed in India, and that his relics were then taken to Edessa. This is the earliest known record of his death. The records of
Barbosa from the early 16th century record that the tomb was then maintained and a lamp is burning there. The
St. Thomas Cathedral Basilica, Chennai,
Tamil Nadu, India, presently located at the tomb, was first built in the 16th century by the Portuguese, and rebuilt in the 19th century by the British. St. Thomas Mount has been a site revered by Christians since at least the 16th century.
Relics Mylapore , India , 18th-century print Traditional accounts say that the Apostle Thomas preached not only in
Kerala but also in
Tamil Nadu and other parts of Southern India, and that a few relics are still kept at
San Thome Basilica in Mylapore neighborhood in the central part of the city of
Chennai in India.
Marco Polo, the
Venetian traveller and author of
Description of the World, popularly known as
Il Milione, is reputed to have visited Southern India in 1288 and 1292. The first date has been rejected as he was in China at the time, but the second date is generally accepted.
Edessa According to tradition, in 232, the greater portion of relics of the Apostle Thomas are said to have been sent by an Indian king and brought from India to the city of
Edessa, Mesopotamia, on which occasion his Syriac
Acts were written. The Indian king is named as "Mazdai" in Syriac sources, and "Misdeos" and "Misdeus" in Greek and Latin sources respectively, which has been connected to the "Bazdeo" on the Kushan coinage of
Vasudeva I, the transition between "M" and "B" being a current one in classical sources for Indian names. The martyrologist
Rabban Sliba dedicated a special day to both the Indian king, his family, and Saint Thomas: In the 4th century, the martyrium erected over his burial place brought pilgrims to Edessa. In the 380s,
Egeria described her visit in a letter she sent to her community of nuns at home: We arrived at Edessa in the Name of Christ our God, and, on our arrival, we straightway repaired to the church and memorial of saint Thomas. There, according to custom, prayers were made and the other things that were customary in the holy places were done; we read also some things concerning saint Thomas himself. The church there is very great, very beautiful and of new construction, well worthy to be the house of God, and as there was much that I desired to see, it was necessary for me to make a three days' stay there. According to
Theodoret of Cyrrhus, the bones of Saint Thomas were transferred by
Cyrus I, Bishop of Edessa, from the martyrium outside of Edessa, to a church in the south-west corner of the city on 22 August 394. In 441, the
Magister militum per Orientem Anatolius donated a silver coffin to hold the relics. In 1144, the city was conquered by the
Zengids and the shrine destroyed. In 522,
Cosmas Indicopleustes (called the Alexandrian) visited the Malabar Coast. He is the first traveller who mentions Syrian Christians in Malabar, in his book
Christian Topography. He mentions that in the town of "Kalliana" (Quilon or Kollam), there was a bishop who had been consecrated in Persia.
Chios and Ortona The reputed relics of Saint Thomas remained at Edessa until they were moved to
Chios in 1258. Some portion of the relics were later transferred again, and now rest in the Cathedral of Saint Thomas the Apostle in
Ortona, Italy. However, the skull of Thomas is said to be at
Monastery of Saint John the Theologian on the Greek island of
Patmos. Ortona's three galleys reached the island of Chios in 1258, led by General Leone
Acciaiuoli. Chios was considered the island where Thomas, after his death in India, had been buried. A portion fought around the Peloponnese and the Aegean islands, the other in the sea lapping at the then Syrian coast. The three galleys of Ortona moved on the second front of the war and reached the island of Chios. The tale is provided by Giambattista De Lectis, physician and writer of the 16th century of Ortona. After the looting, the navarca Ortona Leone went to pray in the main church of the island of Chios and was drawn to a chapel adorned and resplendent with lights. An elderly priest, through an interpreter, informed him that in that oratory was venerated the body of Saint Thomas the Apostle. Leone, filled with an unusual sweetness, gathered in deep prayer. At that moment, a light hand twice invited him to come closer. The navarca Leone reached out and took a bone from the largest hole of the tombstone, on which were carved the Greek letters and a halo depicted a bishop from the waist up. He was the confirmation of what he had said the old priest and that you are indeed in the presence of the Apostle's body. He went back on the galley and planned the theft for the next night, along with fellow Ruggiero Grogno. They lifted the heavy gravestone, watched the underlying relics, wrapped them in snow-white cloths, laid them in a wooden box (stored at Ortona to the looting of 1566) and brought them aboard the galley. Leone, then, along with other comrades, returned again to the church, took the tombstone and took her away. Just the Chinardo admiral was aware of the precious cargo, he moved all the Muslim sailors on other ships and ordered him to take the route to Ortona. He landed at the port of Ortona 6 September 1258. According to the story of De Lectis, he was informed the abbot Jacopo was responsible for Ortona Church, which predisposed full provision for hospitality felt and shared by all the people. Since then, the body of the apostle and the gravestone are preserved in the crypt of the Basilica. In 1259, a parchment written in Bari by the court under John Peacock contracts, the presence of five witnesses, preserved in Ortona at the Diocesan Library, confirming the veracity of that event, reported, as mentioned, by Giambattista De Lectis, physician and writer Ortona of the 16th century. The relics resisted both the Saracen looting of 1566, and the destruction of the Nazis in the
battle of Ortona fought in late December 1943. The basilica was blown up because the belfry was considered a lookout point by the
Allies, coming by sea from San Vito Chietino. The relics, together with the treasure of Saint Thomas, were intended by the Germans to be sold, but the monks entombed them inside the bell tower, the only surviving part of the semi-ruined church. which covered the Apostle's relics at Chios, now in the Basilica of Ortona The tombstone of Thomas, brought to Ortona from Chios along with the relics of the Apostle, are preserved in the crypt of St Thomas Basilica, behind the altar. The urn containing the bones is placed under the altar. It is the cover of a fake coffin, a fairly widespread burial form in the early Christian world, as the top of a tomb of less expensive material. The plaque has an inscription and a bas-relief that refer, in many respects, to the Syro-Mesopotamian. Tombstone Thomas the Apostle on inclusion can be read, in
Greek uncial, the expression 'osios thomas, that Saint Thomas. It can be dated from the point of view palaeographic and lexical to the 3rd–5th century, a time when the term osios is still used as a synonym of aghios in that holy is he that is in the grace of God and is inserted in the church: the two vocabulary, therefore, indicate the Christians. In the particular case of Saint Thomas' plaque, the word osios can be the translation of the word Syriac
mar (Lord), attributed in the ancient world, but also to the present day, is a saint to be a bishop.
Iraq The purported finger bones of Saint Thomas were discovered during restoration work at the
Church of Saint Thomas in
Mosul,
Iraq in 1964, and were housed there until the
Fall of Mosul, after which the relics were transferred to the
Monastery of Saint Matthew on 17 June 2014. == Succession ==