Thomas

Who was Thomas?
Notes by Thomas Madron

Perhaps the best-known event in Thomas' life is the one from which the phrase "doubting Thomas" developed. In John 20:19-29 he was not among those disciples to whom the risen Christ first appeared, and, when they told the incredulous Thomas, he requested physical proof of the Resurrection, fulfilled when Christ reappeared and specifically asked Thomas to touch his wounds. His sudden realization of truth ("My Lord and my God") made Thomas the first person to explicitly acknowledge Jesus' divinity.

Not very much is known about Thomas. He was probably born in Galilee and traidition holds that he diad about AD 53 in Madras, India; The Western feast day is December 21, feast day in Roman and Syrian Catholic churches July 3, in the Greek church October 6; one of the Twelve Apostles. His name in Aramaic (Te'oma) and Greek (Didymos) means "twin"; John 11:16 identifies him as "Thomas, called the Twin." He is called Judas Thomas (i.e., Judas the Twin) by the Syrians.

Thanks to the fourth Gospel Thomas' personality is clearer to us than that of some others of the Twelve, although we know little about his life. His name occurs in all the lists of the Synoptic Gospels (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 said to his fellow disciples: "Let us also go, that we may die with him" (John 11:16). At the Last Supper, Jesus said: "I go to prepare a place for you.... And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know." Thomas replied: "Lord, we know not where you go, and how can we know the way?" To this Jesus answered: "I am the way, the truth and the life." (John 14:1-6). Thomas, as noted above, is best remembered for his incredulity when the other Apostles announced Christ's Resurrection to him: Eight days later he made his act of faith, drawing down the rebuke of Jesus: "Because you have seen me, Thomas, you have believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed" (John 20:29).

Thomas' subsequent history is uncertain. Later Christian tradition says Thomas extended his missionary efforts into India, where he is recognized as the founder of the Church of the Syrian Malabar Christians, or Christians of St. Thomas. In the apocryphal Acts of Thomas, originally composed in Syriac, his martyrdom is cited under the king of Mylapore at Madras, where are to be found St. Thomas Mount and San Thom Cathedral, his traditional burial place. His relics, however, supposedly were taken to the West and finally enshrined at Ortona, Italy. He allegedly visited the court of the Indo-Parthian king Gondophernes, who put him in charge of building a royal palace (the Acts of Thomas states that he was a carpenter); he was imprisoned for spending on charity the money entrusted him. It is difficult to discover, however, 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 although The tradition among Christians in India is that Thomas was speared to death near Madras, and accordingly he is often pictured holding a spear.

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