Saint Thomas the Apostle
Feast Day: December 21
Saint Thomas
the Apostle
Apostle
Profile
Little is recorded of
St. Thomas the Apostle, nevertheless thanks to the fourth Gospel his personality
is clearer to us than that of some others of the Twelve. His name occurs in all
the lists of the Synoptists (Matthew 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6, cf. Acts 1:13),
but in St. John he plays a distinctive part. First, when Jesus announced His
intention of returning to Judea to visit Lazarus, "Thomas" who is called Didymus
[the twin], said to his fellow disciples: "Let us also go, that we may die with
him" (John 11:16). Again it was St. Thomas who during the discourse before the
Last Supper raised an objection: "Thomas saith to him: Lord, we know not whither
thou goest; and how can we know the way?" (John 14:5). But more especially St.
Thomas is remembered for his incredulity when the other Apostles announced
Christ's Resurrection to him: "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the
nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his
side, I will not believe" (John 20:25); but eight days later he made his act of
faith, drawing down the rebuke of Jesus: "Because thou hast seen me, Thomas,
thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed"
(John 20:29).
This exhausts all our
certain knowledge regarding the Apostle but his name is the starting point of a
considerable apocryphal literature, and there are also certain historical data
which suggest that some of this apocryphal material may contains germs of truth.
The principal document concerning him is the "Acta Thomae", preserved to us with
some variations both in Greek and in Syriac, and bearing unmistakable signs of
its Gnostic origin. It may indeed be the work of Bardesanes himself. The story
in many of its particulars is utterly extravagant, but it is the early date,
being assigned by Harnack (Chronologie, ii, 172) to the beginning of the third
century, before A. D. 220. If the place of its origin is really Edessa, as
Harnack and others for sound reasons supposed (ibid., p. 176), this would lend
considerable probability to the statement, explicitly made in "Acta" (Bonnet,
cap. 170, p.286), that the relics of Apostle Thomas, which we know to have been
venerated at Edessa, had really come from the East. The extravagance of the
legend may be judged from the fact that in more than one place (cap. 31, p. 148)
it represents Thomas (Judas Thomas, as he is called here and elsewhere in Syriac
tradition) as the twin brother of Jesus. The Thomas in Syriac is equivalent to
didymos in Greek, and means twin. Rendel Harris who exaggerates very much the
cult of the Dioscuri, wishes to regards this as a transformation of a pagan
worship of Edessa but the point is at best problematical. The story itself runs
briefly as follows: At the division of the Apostles, India fell to the lot of
Thomas, but he declared his inability to go, whereupon his Master Jesus appeared
in a supernatural way to Abban, the envoy of Gundafor, an Indian king, and sold
Thomas to him to be his slave and serve Gundafor as a carpenter. Then Abban and
Thomas sailed away until they came to Andrapolis, where they landed and attended
the marriage feast of the ruler's daughter. Strange occurrences followed and
Christ under the appearance of Thomas exhorted the bride to remain a Virgin.
Coming to India Thomas undertook to build a palace for Gundafor, but spend the
money entrusted to him on the poor. Gundafor imprisoned him; but the Apostle
escaped miraculously and Gundafor was converted. Going about the country to
preach, Thomas met with strange adventures from dragons and wild asses. Then he
came to the city of King Misdai (Syriac Mazdai), where he converted Tertia the
wife of Misdai and Vazan his son. After this he was condemned to death, led out
of city to a hill, and pierced through with spears by four soldiers. He was
buried in the tomb of the ancient kings but his remains were afterwards removed
to the West.
Now it is certainly a
remarkable fact that about the year A.D. 46 a king was reigning over that part
of Asia south of Himalayas now represented by Afghanistan, Baluchistan, the
Punjab, and Sind, who bore the name Gondophernes or Guduphara. This we know both
from the discovery of coins, some of the Parthian type with Greek legends,
others of the Indian types with the legends in an Indian dialect in Kharoshthi
characters. Despite sundry minor variations the identity of the name with the
Gundafor of the "Acta Thomae" is unmistakable and is hardly disputed. Further we
have the evidence of the Takht-i-Bahi inscription, which is dated and which the
best specialists accept as establishing the King Gunduphara probably began to
reign about A.D. 20 and was still reigning in 46. Again there are excellent
reasons for believing that Misdai or Mazdai may well be transformation of a
Hindu name made on the Iranian soil. In this case it will probably represent a
certain King Vasudeva of Mathura, a successor of Kanishka. No doubt it can be
urged that the Gnostic romancer who wrote the "Acta Thomae" may have adopted a
few historical Indian names to lend verisimilitude to his fabrication, but as
Mr. Fleet urges in his severely critical paper "the names put forward here in
connection with St. Thomas are distinctly not such as have lived in Indian story
and tradition" (Joul. of R. Asiatic Soc.,1905, p.235).
On the other hand,
though the tradition that St. Thomas preached in "India" was widely spread in
both East and West and is to be found in such writers as Ephraem Syrus, Ambrose,
Paulinus, Jerome, and, later Gregory of Tours and others, still it is difficult
to discover any adequate support for the long-accepted belief that St. Thomas
pushed his missionary journeys as far south as Mylapore, not far from Madras,
and there suffered martyrdom. In that region is still to be found a granite
bas-relief cross with a Pahlavi (ancient Persian) inscription dating from the
seventh century, and the tradition that it was here that St. Thomas laid down
his life is locally very strong. Certain it is also that on the Malabar or west
coast of southern India a body of Christians still exists using a form of Syriac
for its liturgical language. Whether this Church dates from the time of St.
Thomas the Apostle (there was a Syro-Chaldean bishop John "from India and
Persia" who assisted at the Council of Nicea in 325) or whether the Gospel was
first preached there in 345 owing to the Persian persecution under Shapur (or
Sapor), or whether the Syrian missionaries who accompanied a certain Thomas Cana
penetrated to the Malabar coast about the year 745 seems difficult to determine.
We know only that in the sixth century Cosmas Indicopleustes speaks of the
existence of Christians at Male (?Malabar) under a bishop who had been
consecrated in Persia. King Alfred the Great is stated in the "Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle" to have sent an expedition to establish relations with these
Christians of the Far East. On the other hand the reputed relics of St. Thomas
were certainly at Edessa in the fourth century, and there they remained until
they were translated to Chios in 1258 and towards to Ortona. The improbable
suggestion that St. Thomas preached in America (American Eccles. Rev., 1899,
pp.1-18) is based upon a misunderstanding of the text of the Acts of Apostles (i,
8; cf. Berchet "Fonte italiane per la storia della scoperta del Nuovo Mondo",
II, 236, and I, 44).
Besides the "Acta
Thomae" of which a different and notably shorter redaction exists in Ethiopic
and Latin, we have an abbreviated form of a so-called "Gospel of Thomas"
originally Gnostic, as we know it now merely a fantastical history of the
childhood of Jesus, without any notably heretical coloring. There is also a "Revelatio
Thomae", condemned as apocryphal in the Degree of Pope Gelasius, which has
recently been recovered from various sources in a fragmentary condition (see the
full text in the Revue benedictine, 1911, pp. 359-374).
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIV
Nihil Obstat, July 1, 1912, Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor
Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
St. Thomas, Apostle
by Father Francis Xavier Weninger,
1876
St. Thomas was a fisherman, born in
Galilee. The divine Saviour received him among His Apostles, to announce His
Gospel to the world, and to convert mankind. From the time that he was chosen
to so high an office, Thomas followed his beloved Master everywhere, and
feared no danger. One day, when Jesus spoke of going to Judaea, to awaken
Lazarus from the dead, some of His disciples opposed Him, saying: "Rabbi, the
Jews but now sought to stone Thee, and goest Thou thither again?" They
probably feared that they would have to suffer with Him. Thomas, however, more
courageous than the others, said: "Let us also go, that we may die with Him."
By these words the Apostle manifested that no fear of death would separate him
from Christ; and that, rather than leave Him, he would die with Him. It is
true that later, with other disciples, he left Him on the Mount of Olives,
when He was taken prisoner by the Jews; but he returned soon, and joined the
rest of the Apostles.
On the day of His resurrection, Christ appeared to them. Thomas, however, was
not with them. When they told him afterwards, that they had seen the Lord, he
doubted, and said: "Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails,
and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side,
I will not believe." By this, Thomas meant that he did not believe the
resurrection of the Lord, although he had several times heard from the lips of
Jesus, not only a prophecy of His sufferings and death, but also of His
resurrection; and although the Apostles and several pious women had repeatedly
assured him that they had seen the risen Lord. The Holy Fathers say that
Christ permitted this unbelief in Thomas, not only that from it we might learn
our own weakness, but also that all who believe in Him might be so much better
instructed in the mystery of His resurrection, and strengthened in their
belief in it. Hence, St. Gregory writes: "The unbelief of Thomas has been more
useful to our belief than the belief of the other disciples of the Lord, who,
without hesitation, received the news of His resurrection," because the
unbelief of Thomas gave occasion for new proofs of the resurrection of Christ.
The eighth day after that event, Christ came into the hall where Thomas was
with the other Apostles, and greeted them with the words: "Peace be unto you."
Then, turning to Thomas, He said: "Put in thy finger hither, and see my hands;
and reach hither thy hand, and put it into my side; and be not faithless, but
believing." What Thomas must have felt at these words, and at seeing his risen
Saviour, each one may picture to himself. He saw himself suddenly convinced,
not only of the resurrection, but also of the omniscience of his dear Master.
With shame and fear at the remembrance of his fault, but also with love and
confidence at the thought of the meekness of the Saviour, he touched, with
deep veneration, the holy wounds, and exclaimed: "My Lord and my God!" In
these few words he repented of his unbelief, and at the same time made a
confession of his faith, in presence of those whom he had scandalized by his
obstinacy. He remained until his end, constant in his belief; and, after the
descent of the Holy Ghost, announced, not only the glorious resurrection of
the Lord, but also the other mysteries and articles of the faith.
St. Thomas passed some time in Judaea, preaching the Gospel, and then went
into distant countries, inhabited by savage races, as Parthia, Media, Persia,
Hyrcania, and came, at last, to India. In all he preached the Gospel of the
Lord, notwithstanding the manifold difficulties which the Evil One placed in
his way, through the enemies of the faith, and the numerous persecutions which
he everywhere endured. How many thousand souls this holy Apostle converted to
Christ is known only to Him from whom nothing is hid. The many miracles which
he almost daily performed, persuaded the people that the faith which he
preached was truly divine: hence his success with the most embittered pagans.
He made the largest number of converts in India. This immense territory he
traversed in every direction, and established Christianity in it so firmly,
that traces of it were found there in the sixteenth century, fifteen hundred
years after his death. Even in China, indubitable signs of it were discovered.
He erected many churches, and placed Christian teachers in them, that the
faith he had personally preached during his life might be preserved after his
death.
At the building of the church at Meliapor, one of the chief cities of India, a
wonderful event took place. The sea had cast ashore a very large tree, which
the king desired to make use of for the palace he was just erecting. But
neither men nor many elephants could move the tree. The holy Apostle, full of
trust in the Almighty, offered to draw the immense burden all alone, if the
king would make him a present of it for the Christian church he was about to
build. The king consented, and St. Thomas, loosening his girdle, tied the end
of it to one branch of the tree, made the sign of the Cross, and drew the tree
away from the place where it was lying. All present were greatly astonished at
this miracle, and many were converted, and assisted the Apostle in building
the church. In this church the Saint erected a cross of stone, which, it is
said, is still to be seen at this day. Upon this cross he engraved the
following words: "When the sea will have reached this spot, men will come from
Europe to propagate the faith which I began to preach." The sea was, at that
time, far off, but at the time when St. Francis Xavier landed there, it had
reached the cross, and the prophecy was fulfilled.
The idolatrous priests who could not contradict the faith which St. Thomas
preached, and which he verified by so many miracles, were enraged at his
success, as they lost considerably in temporal goods by the conversions that
took place. They therefore endeavored to arouse the king's wrath against him,
or to make away with him in some other manner. Some write that they persuaded
the king to pronounce his death-sentence, and that he was shot dead with
arrows. Others relate that the Brahmins themselves took the life of the holy
Apostle. They had ascertained that the Saint went every day, towards evening,
to a cross which he himself had erected, and that he remained there a long
time in prayer. This gave them a favorable opportunity to vent their wrath
upon him. They came together silently to the place where, on bended knees, the
Saint was saying his prayers. One of them thrust a lance into him so violently
that he sank upon the ground; after which, the others continued to beat him
and to trample on him until all signs of life ceased.
When St. Francis Xavier came to India, the signs of blood were still to be
seen on the cross where this murderous deed was committed; and more than once
drops of blood appeared on this cross during the celebration of Mass, when
crowds of people were present. St. Xavier, shortly after his arrival in India,
went to the tomb of St. Thomas, and passed many days and nights there in
prayer. He begged God fervently to bestow upon him the Spirit and zeal of this
holy Apostle, that he might be able to restore the Christian faith which St.
Thomas had preached there, but which had gradually been entirely exterminated.
Before undertaking any important work, he went, if possible, to the tomb of
St. Thomas; and when this was impossible, he invoked the holy Apostle's
intercession, and endeavored to follow his example in all things.
PRACTICAL
CONSIDERATIONS.
I. St. Thomas, for three years,
accompanied Christ our Lord; was present at His divine instructions; saw the
many miracles He wrought; and yet became incredulous and remained so for eight
days, and might have remained still longer, had not Christ mercifully restored
his faith. Go, O man, and build upon your own strength, or if you have lived
piously for some time, imagine you are secure against falling! Oh! how
foolish, how presumptuous you are! That which happened to an apostle may
surely happen to you. The sad fall of our holy Apostle, ought not, however, to
make you despondent or fearful; it ought only to incite you not to trust too
much in your own strength, but to walk continually in the fear of the Lord,
and to pray to Him daily, that He may give you the grace not to offend Him,
but to remain constant in His service If you remain continually in the fear of
the Lord, you will walk carefully and not fall into any great sin. For, it is
written: "The fear of the Lord is unto life; and he shall abide in fulness
without being visited with evil," (without falling into sin.) (Proverbs, xix.)
Tertullian writes: "Fear is the foundation of our salvation. Whoever fears is
careful. Through fear we shall become careful, and through carefulness we
shall be saved. Whoever is careful is sure." If we cease to fear God, then we
are near falling, even if we have reached the highest pinnacle of perfection.
This the Holy Ghost indicates in the following words: "Unless thou hold
thyself diligently in the fear of the Lord, thy house shall quickly be
overthrown." (Eccles. 22.)
II. Thomas is called unbelieving by Christ, although he disbelieved only one
article, the resurrection. Hence, it is clear that he who doubts, or rejects
only one article of faith, cannot be counted among true Catholics, although he
believes all the others. A Catholic must believe every truth revealed by the
Almighty, be it great or small, as God cannot fail either in small things or
great. The offence which we do to God by denying even the smallest article of
faith, is as great as if we denied an important one, or all of them together;
for, it is just as if we said: God has been deceived, or He has deceived us in
revealing this article. Whether this is said of great and important articles,
or of one that is small, makes but little difference; or if we desire to make
a difference, we must say that it is a greater offence to God to ascribe to
Him a fault in a small matter than in a great; for, what can be more
blasphemous than to maintain that the Almighty has been deceived in a trifling
matter, or that He intends to deceive us? They should ponder on this, who
sometimes entertain doubts about an article of faith, or even go so far as to
say that in some matters, they agree with non-Catholics, and consider them
right. These are no longer Catholics. Their faith is lost; and if they do not
repent, as St. Thomas did, they will go to perdition, because they are
incredulous. They are disobedient who obey nine of the Commandments but not
the tenth. What is the fate of the incredulous? Christ Himself pointed it out
when He said: "Who believes not in the Son, will not see life, but the wrath
of God will remain with him." (John 8.)
Homily of St. Gregory, Pope on the Feast Day of St. Thomas the Apostle
What, dearest brethren do you notice in
this passage? Do you think that it happened by chance, that this chosen
disciple was absent at that time, and afterwards coming, heard the news, and
hearing doubted, that doubting, he touched, and touching, he believed? This
did not happen by chance, but by divine dispensation. For the divine clemency
brought it about in a wonderful way that the doubting disciple, while touching
the wounds in his master's flesh, should thereby heal the wounds of our
unbelief. The unbelief of Thomas is more to our faith than the faith of the
believing disciples. While he is brought back to faith by touching, our minds
are set free from doubt and established in the faith.
So the Lord indeed after his resurrection permitted his disciple to doubt, but
he did not leave him in unbelief; just as before his birth he wished Mary to
have a spouse, who however never attained to the married state. The disciple
who doubted and touched his risen Lord thus became a witness to the truth of
the resurrection, just as the spouse of his mother was the guardian of her
inviolate virginity. Thomas touched, and cried out: My Lord, and my God. Jesus
said to him: Because you have seen me, you have believed. But since the
Apostle Paul says: Now faith is the substance of things to be hoped for, the
evidence of things that appear not; it is certainly clear that faith is the
evidence of those things which cannot appear. The things which appear are the
object, not of faith, but of knowledge.
Why then is it said to Thomas, who saw and touched: Because thou hast seen me,
thou hast believed? But he saw one thing and believed another. Indeed, mortal
man cannot see the divinity. So Thomas saw a man, and confessed him to be God,
saying: My Lord and my God. He therefore believed through seeing, for, looking
upon one who was truly man, he cried out that this was God, whom he could not
see. The words which follow are cause of great joy to us: Blessed are they who
have not seen, and have believed. These words are meant especially for us who
cherish in our minds him, whom we do not see in the flesh. They are meant for
us; but only if we carry out our faith in works. For he truly believes, who
puts his faith into practice.
St. Thomas, Apostle
from the Liturgical Year, 1870
This is the last Feast the Church keeps
before the great one of the Nativity of her Lord and Spouse. She interrupts
the Greater Ferias in order to pay her tribute of honor to Thomas, the Apostle
of Christ, whose glorious martyrdom has consecrated this twenty-first day of
December, and has procured for the Christian people a powerful patron, that
will introduce them to the divine Babe of Bethlehem. To none of the Apostles
could this day have been so fittingly assigned as to St. Thomas. It was St.
Thomas whom we needed; St. Thomas, whose festal patronage would aid us to
believe and hope in that God whom we see not, and who comes to us in silence
and humility in order to try our Faith. St. Thomas was once guilty of
doubting, when he ought to have believed; and only learnt the necessity of
Faith by the sad experience of incredulity: he comes then most appropriately
to defend us, by the power of his example and prayers, against the temptations
which proud human reason might excite within us. Let us pray to him with
confidence. In that heaven of Light and Vision, where his repentance and love
have placed him, he will intercede for us, and gain for us that docility of
mind and heart, which will enable us to see and recognise Him, who is the
Expected of Nations, and who, though the King of the world, will give no other
signs of His majesty, than the swaddling-clothes and tears of a Babe.
Prayer to Saint Thomas the Apostle
O glorious Apostle Thomas! who didst lead
to Christ so many unbelieving nations, hear now the prayers of the faithful,
who beseech thee to lead them to that same Jesus, Who, in five days, will have
shown Himself to His Church. That we may merit to appear in His divine
presence, we need, before all other graces, the light which leads to Him. That
light is Faith; then, pray that we may have Faith. Heretofore, our Savior had
compassion on thy weakness, and deigned to remove from thee the doubt of His
having risen from the grave; pray to Him for us, that He will mercifully come
to our assistance, and make Himself felt by our heart. We ask not, O holy
Apostle! to see Him with the eyes of our body, but with those of our faith,
for He said to thee, when He showed himself to thee: Blessed are they who have
not seen, and have believed!
Of this happy number, we desire to be. We beseech thee, therefore, pray that
we may obtain the Faith of the heart and will, that so, when we behold the
divine Infant wrapped in swaddling-clothes and laid in a manger, we may cry
out: My Lord! and my God! Pray, O holy Apostle, for the nations thou didst
evangelize, but which have fallen back again into the shades of death. May the
day soon come, when the Sun of Justice will once more shine upon them. Bless
the efforts of those apostolic men, who have devoted their labours and their
very lives to the work of the Missions; pray that the days of darkness may be
shortened, and that the countries, which were watered by thy blood, may at
length see that kingdom of God established amongst them, which thou didst
preach to them, and for which we also are in waiting.
Amen.
Prayer II
Touching the Lord's side, thou didst attain to the perfection of good
things, for, as a sponge, thou drew there from the fount of all good and
drank the draught of everlasting life, driving out ignorance from the minds
of men and filling them with the doctrines of the knowledge of God.
First incredulous, then believing, thou strengthened those who were tempted,
preaching to every creature how our Lord and God became flesh for us on
earth and suffered death on the cross, being transfixed with nails and
having His side opened with a lance, whence we draw life.
Most holy apostle, who dost rejoice in the vision of God, thou didst flood
with light all the land of the Indies; when thou hadst enlightened these
children of the light and the day, inspired by the Spirit, thou didst
overthrow their pagan temples and didst raise their people in the love of
God, to the praise and glory of the Church--O blessed intercessor for our
souls.
Through a vision of the divine, thou didst become, O Thomas the Apostle, the
mystic cup of the spiritual wisdom of Christ, in whom the souls of the
faithful rejoice; a spiritual net, thou didst draw men from the abyss of
ignorance. Hence thou became as a stream of charity from Sion, filling every
creature with thy teachings of the divine. Thou didst imitate the Passion of
Christ and, with thy side pierced for Him, didst put on immortality. Pray to
Him for us, that He may have mercy on our souls.
Amen.
above text courtesy of Catholic Harbor of Faith and Morals