1. The Vatican itself has categorically said that St Thomas did not visit India
2. The St Thomas mount is originally called Bringi malai. Inscriptions in nandeeswarar temple near mount stn vouch it. The TN GOVT HRCE board also had kept a board in this reagrd which disappaeared
3. The present Mylapore St Thomas Church was built on Originall Kapaleeswarar temple and a jain neminada temple adjoining it. Dr Nagaswami has recorded the epigraphs in the church walls. ( which was originally the temple wall)
Thomasine Christianity is found in the southern Indian state of Kerala. These churches of Malabar trace their roots back to St. Thomas the Apostle who arrived along the Malabar Coast in the year AD 52. In the Syriac tradition, St. Thomas is referred to as Mar Thoma Sleeha which translate roughly as Lord/Saint Thomas the Apostle.
St Thomas Christians had a unique identity till the arrival of Portuguese in India, who converted St. Thomas Christians to the Catholic Church. As a result of this foreign intervention into the culture there are several present day St. Thomas churches, primarily in the Catholic and Oriental Orthodox Traditions.
The largest church in terms of membership is the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, a major archepiscopal church in communion with the Bishop of Rome with a membership approaching four million adherents. The Malankara Orthodox Syrian church, an autocephlous Church within the Oriental Orthodox family, headed by the Catholicos of East and Malankara Metropolitan (HH Moran Mar Baselios Didymos I) has over 3.5 million followers.
In 1930, a bishop with a group of Orthodox reunited with the Catholic Church, while retaining all their Traditions and Liturgical Rites - they are the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, which today number 500,000.[citation needed]
A related, although minor, church in Malankara is the Mar Thoma Church. The church claims membership of 900,000.
Several Popes have asserted the origin of south Indian Christianity from the Apostle Thomas. Pope John Paul V in 1606 erected the diocoese of San Thomas of Mylapore.
Pope Leo XIII while establishing the hierarchy of the Latin Catholic church in India in 1886, referred to India as having first received the light of the gospel from Apostle Thomas.
During the apostolic visit to India in 1986, Pope John Paul II visited the Mylapore tomb and he is said to have cited the words of Apostle Thomas to his companions.
While raising the Syro-Malabar church as a major archepiscopal church in 1990, Pope John Paul II wrote that this church "as the constant tradition holds, owed its origin to the preaching of Apostle St Thomas."
In 2002, the 1,950th anniversary of St Thomas' arrival in Kerala was celebrated by the Sryo-Malabar church in which the papal delegate had participated.
After building a church, declaring it a basilica and still you decline to comment. If Vatican is not sure on one of the appostals, then defenetly there is some thing.
Now The Current Pope has joined the chorus.
Dear Sridhar -
1. Can you categorically say a. St Thomas Mt is the place where thomas was killed by a "Brahmin".
2. can you say the presenr st thomas church is not on kapaleeswarar temple?
When comes to pillayar we need vattaeluthu, pulli, kolam. But for thomas just belief is enough.
As an "interested" party, adiyen has some observations to make on the Apostle Thomas and his coming to India:
i. There is no strong historical reference to the Apostle Thomas coming to India. Probably this story was confused with a later story of a Thomas of Cana from Syria who came with his family to Kerala in 3th C AD to 'pancham pozhaikka'.
ii. In the Christian scheme of things, it is important to have an apostle come and start a church in your country - e.g. Peter in Rome, Mark in Alexandria etc. This gives your church 'apostolic status'. Sad to say, Indian Christans (esp those in Kerala) have created many stories about Thomas in order to have an impressive pedigree.
iii. Whether Thomas came to India or not is not a fundamental matter of belief of the Christian religion.
iv. FINALLY, please read the story of Thomas' murder by a brahmin. Does it sound like it happened in India, in Tamil Nadu? All the major elements of the story - cave, spear, killed by priest of foreign religion, miracles - are the same elements you find in most Euopean stories of how saints got ki that this is how Thomas died - it sounds more like a fictional account written for 'European' audience taste.
there are reports in third century that thomas visited india
then the visit of 2 italians marco polo and another independently confirmed the tomb in 13th century
when the portugese in (15th century) came they found remains of a " nestorian chapel"
vatican did not build the original structure,. they moved in only later.
surely portugese must have hindered the operation of a shiva temple next to their location. but then history does not record a destruction of the kapali temple. we still find ancient inscriptions in the present location.
it could have been a translocation of the temple mostly by intimidation.
there are so many ancient shiva temples in the santhome vicinity which remain untouched by the portuggese.
I am not categorically satting anything I leave it to the experts and I totally agree with Mark's Assessment and the analogy and yet he calls himself humbly as a failed historian!
I do not state that Thomas visited India or otherwise ....I do not believe he was killed by brahmins...etc...
But at the same time will not be surprised that Christianity ventured into India much before the europeans like islam coming into India much before the invading sultans...
This is largely due to the trade India was having with Egypt, Ethiopia and Greece and Rome. India was a great trading partner and hence the religeons followed the famous areas...
Why did they not flourish till invasions or conversions by force or by promise of better life...
In those days maybe Indian rulers looked after them well...wheras later there were many reasons for conversions....we have discussed this a lot in our archives..