St. Thomas in
Mylapore
How did St.
Thomas, a direct disciple and Apostle of Jesus Christ, end up in Mylapore, in
today’s Chennai in Tamil Nadu, South India? We have seen that St. Thomas came
to India, first to the northern kingdom of an Indo-Parthian ruler, Gundaphorus
and on his death, he came in AD 52 to the Malabar region of today’s Kerala in
India. He evangelized that area and was instrumental in establishing seven
churches in Malabar region, Kerala, and one church in today’s Nagercoil, Tamil
Nadu. Today’s existence of Thomas Christians is the most visible evidence of
this sojourn of Thomas, as the first direct disciple of Christ to bring
Christian faith in India so early in history.
St. Thomas
moved from the Chera country in south India (Kerala) to the Pandya
realm in south India (Tamil Nadu), and continued his ministry. In this present
blog we will see how he came to the opposite coast, Coromandel coast and about his
life there. Tradition has it that he came to the Coromandel coast around AD 62.
He lived in Mylapore area in a place called Little Mount and continued his
ministry. He suffered martyrdom in AD 72 by zealous Brahmins of the area, who
resented him converting Brahmins to Christian faith, and speared him in the
Little Mount area. He straggled to Parangi Malai or St. Thomas Mount with
his bleeding wound and died there. He was buried in St. Thomas Mount, and later
removed to Santhome church near the beach in Mylapore. In AD 163 a Christian
merchant from Edessa (in upper Mesopotamia, today’s Iraq), arrived at the port
of Madras, on the eastern coast of Indian subcontinent, and visited the saint’s
grave at Mylapore and participated in the Eucharist, observed on 21 December as
the day of Thomas’s martyrdom. He returned again two years later in AD 165,
stole the body of the saint in the dead of the night and took it away to Edessa.
Some of the bones were left as relics in Mylapore. Today the place where the
body of St. Thomas is supposed to be in the Basilica of Santhome church, there
is nothing but a bone or two.
Little Mount Shrine
St. Thomas lived in a natural cave located beneath the 16th century church at the Little Mount Shrine in Saidapet, Chennai. He is said to have lived and preached from this place. The Portuguese built a small chapel over the cave in 1551 which is still preserved inside the Little Mount Shrine complex. The natural cave measures about 14 feet wide, 15-16 feet long, and reaches 7 feet at its highest point. There is an ancient stone cross carved directly into the surface of the rock, near the entrance. There are indentations believed to be the marks of hand and feet of St. Thomas inside the cave. A narrow escape window in the wall is said to be the escape way for the saint to slip away in times of attacks. Near the cross on the rock, there is also a freshwater spring on the hillock, which is said to have sprung when the Saint struck the rock with his staff to bring water to quench the thirst of the people who came to hear him. It is called St. Thomas Fountain. This water is said to have healing properties.
Just outside and
above the cave, there is a small stone sculpture on the wall. The Apostle is
seen in it as a haloed, bearded figure, holding the Bible and a carpenter’s
scale in one hand and the right hand, raised as if to bless people. According
to the second century apocryphal text, Acts of Thomas, originally composed in
Syriac literature in Edessa (upper Mesopotamia), St Thomas came to India as a
carpenter. Below the sculpture is some inscription in Portuguese, which is translated
as: “Antonio Concalvez De Taide made this bulwark of St. at his own cost in
1612,” St. being St. Thomas. East India Company records show that this
sculpture was erected on the Fort of Santhome, in Mylapore, which was under
Portuguese’ possession then, who had fortified the town to protect the
traditions of St. Thomas. But, in early seventeenth century, Mylapore was
raided by Hyder Ali of Mysore and much of the heritage was damaged. In 1697,
the British who was in power then, demolished the remnants of the fort, and
established themselves in St. George Fort. Sometimes during these events, the sculpture
was removed to the Little Mount.
Pillar of
Faith, a tall column with a cross on the top has been constructed in 2019 to commemorate
the Archdiocesan Year of the Eucharist in 2018-2019. The pillar is chiseled
from three huge stones from the same rock, to symbolize the Holy Trinity. At
its foot we see the Sacred heart of Jesus, Apostle St. Thomas, a grapevine, a
dove, and a lamb denoting the risen Lord. An area known as the Holy Land immediately
behind the church building has been developed as a mini-amphitheatre with a
raised stage, with a Jesus Tower at one end. It has the capacity to seat 2000
people and is used even today for retreats, worship consorts and so on. Around
this area, we see statues of many stations of the passion of Christ, which
become very meaningful during Lenten season, as devoted followers of Christ
follow each station and pray. The twelfth station is housed inside the chapel
of the Holy Cross, with a beautiful depiction of Christ on the cross. A huge
crown of thorn adorns the entrance to this chapel.
An Armenian
tombstone erected in AD 1663 for one Coja David has been found on this Little
Mount. It is believed that he constructed the stone steps leading to the Little
Mount church at his cost, as a measure of his devotion to the shrine of St.
Thomas.
The Altar and inside of the Church
St. Thomas
Mount is 11 kms south of Madras (today’s Chennai), and there is an ancient
church on the top of this mount. According to tradition a cross was chiseled on
a stone by Thomas himself, before which the saint used to pray for long hours
when he was alive. Tradition has it that he was praying before the cross, when
he was speared from behind by an overzealous Brahmin. A stone cross, possibly a
seventh century stone cross, believed to be this cross was found when
Portuguese dug the foundations for the extension of the church in 1547. This
stone is supposed to have sweated blood during the Holy Mass in 1558, and 1561,
and thereafter every year for some time and then at longer intervals. The last
time it sweated blood was in 1704. Eye-witness accounts of such sweating blood
have been recorded in 1711 by Father Guy Tachara. In the seventeenth century a
small chapel called the “Chapel of Resurrection,” was built using this cross as
the altar. Many miracles of healing are said to have taken in the vicinity by a
mere touch of the stone and it is a place of faith, pilgrimage and devotion,
both by believers and non-believers. In 1908, after much disputation, the
inscription around the stone cross was deciphered as “Through the Cross, the
Messiah brought salvation to the world.”
St. Thomas
Mount is a small hillock in Chennai, and is also known as Parangi Malai. It lies
close to the Chennai airport and Guindy. Even today from this vantage point we
can see the flights landing or taking off from the airport nearby. It is just
300 feet elevation. According to the Christian tradition, St. Thomas was
martyred here in AD 72, or he straggled up to this mount for refuge after being
fatally wounded by a spear in the Little Mount (located in Saidapet/Guindy on
the banks of Adayar river) which is 4.7 km from this Parangi Malai. And he died
in St. Thomas Mount.
A larger
church was built by the Portuguese in 1547 over the place where St. Thomas died
and was dedicated to Our Lady of Expectation. The church is believed to have
served as a lighthouse for Portuguese and Armenian ships in the 16th
century. The sailors on sighting the church are said to have prayed for a safe
voyage or thank for safe journey they had had. In 1830, St. Thomas Garrison
Church was built to serve British soldiers stationed in the area since 1774. There
are 134 steps to the top of the mount and 14 stations of the cross are situated
along this path. These steps leading to up to the top of the hill were built by
an Armenian merchant by name Coja Petrus Uscan, with a four-arch gateway in the
northern base. The ornate arch was built in 1726, as per the inscription on it.
A fully asphalted road was laid down up to the top of the hill in 1962 with an
imposing welcome arch. Pope Paul II visited the shrine in 1986, and it was
declared a minor Basilica in July 2025.
There stands
a Calvary Shrine, built in 1963, atop the mountain, placed in the main
courtyard outside the entrance of the St. Thomas Mount National Shrine
Basilica, with a central figure of Christ nailed to the cross, and three
figures, Mother Mary, Saint John the Apostle, and Mary Magdelene standing at
the foot of the cross as written in the Gospels, as witness to the scene in
Calvary.
Millions of
people from all faiths visit the hill to pay their respects to St. Thomas and
to pray. Many healings and miracles are said to have occurred to people of
faith. When I visited the Mount and the shrines along with my brother and sister-in-law,
on 3rd July 2026, the day was being observed as the Remembrance Day
of the St. Thomas and all the three places we visited, the Little Mount, St.
Thomas Mount and Santhome Basilica were decorated and people made a beeline to
the cave in Santhome basilica to attend the service held there, then on to the
mounts in the evenings to attend services being held there in the churches. The
devotion of the people was palpable.
Thomas as a carpenter shown as carving a stone cross at St. Thomas Mount
Chapel of Our Lady of Expectation in St. Thomas Mount
A flight landing in the nearby Chennai airport
This church
was built in 1523 AD by Portuguese explorers over the tomb of Saint Thomas, the
Apostle. This is only one of the three churches in the entire world built over
the tomb of apostles of Christ, along with St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City
(St. Peter was martyred in Rome during the reign of Emperor Nero in AD 64) and St.
James’ Santiago de Compostela in Spain (St. James was martyred in Jerusalem in
44 AD and his remains were brought by sea to Spain and buried there). Portuguese
missionaries and explorers arrived in Coromandal coast in 1517 to search for
the tomb of St. Thomas. On finding a mud shrine in neglected condition, they
got the approval of their king John III of Portugal and excavated the burial
site and built a new church directly over the original tomb in 1523 in Santhome
church. That is when the importance of the tomb commenced and the world got to
know about St. Thomas and his martyrdom in South India.
Historically
it is recorded that King Alfred the Great (883 AD) sent his royal envoys to
travel to south India with offerings for the tomb of St. Thomas. John of Montecorvino
(1291) an Italian Franciscan missionary also visited this shrine and prayed at
the site of the tomb. Marco Polo visited Mylapore in 1292 and has recorded information
about the tomb and that both Christians and Muslims revered the tomb, where the
body of the saint was supposed to have interned, as a pilgrim on his return
voyage from China. Some Franciscan friars travelled to Mylapore and visited the
shrine in 14th century. Nicolo Conti, the famous Venetian merchant
and explorer journeyed to the tomb between 1435 and 1430 and left notes on the same.
St. Francis Xavier had visited the shrine in 1545 and stayed for a year or so in
the nearby area. Santhome church was renovated in 1896 by the British in the
new-Gothic style. The church was made a cathedral in 1906 by Pope Paul V. Pope
Paul II visited the church in 1986. Relics of some bones of Thomas the Apostle,
the spear head that was used to kill him, are kept in the lower level of the Basilica,
in the tomb of St. Thomas in this church today.
In front of the Santhome Basilica, with my brother Suri, and sister-in-law Nirmala
We the
Protestants avoid even visiting these places, as we think it is all steeped in
superstition encouraged by the Catholic church. But I do find Catholics much
more pious and devoted as compared to the intellectual attitude of the
Protestants. In the end, we all worship the same Christ, who died for us on the
cross, to bring salvation to anyone who would believe in him. As far as the
core message of Christ’s birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension are
believed, as mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15:3-5, I would consider the other fringe
differences in the beliefs as not very important. Disciples like St. Thomas
stand witness to faith in Christ, by coming all the way to India, as early as AD
52, to spread the truth about salvation in Christ and save people from their
sins. The churches, not only in Malabar region of Kerala, but these in the
Mylapore area of Chennai, stand as tall witnesses to the devotion and life of
Jesus’ disciples, who carried the good news (gospel) to far reaching countries,
including India.
Aren’t we in
India privileged to have a direct disciple of Jesus Christ visit us so early in
history and bring us the message of Christian faith? As Christian churches and
organizations face direct and indirect assaults today, when even preaching the
good news could invite the wrath of the authorities, maybe we could take
encouragement and strength from St. Thomas’s life, for it was no different
then. Jesus had said in John 5:20, “Remember
the words that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater that his master.’ If
they persecute Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they
will keep yours also.” Persecution is no stranger to Christian life. We will keep
praying for strength and the ability to bear it all in the name of Jesus. Let
us say along with Thomas, “My Lord, my God,” and be ready to face anything that
confronts us, with prayer and supplications to our Lord and Master, Jesus
Christ. In His strength, let us march forward, for His glory.
