What
the Ramban Song Says?
The Apostle and Prince Kepha proceeded from Quilon in a northeasterly
direction and arrived at Thrikapaleswaram, near Niranom. Thrikapaleswaram
had Hindu temples at that time, and to provide a place of public
worship to the Christian community, the Apostle planted a cross
a few furlongs away to the west of one of the temples. The non-Christian
people in the locality did not like this and they pulled it out
and cast it into the nearby river.
This
desecration took place sometime after the Apostle had left the
place for Chayal or Nileckal. Two Christians from Thrikapaleswaram
went there and requested the Apostle to re-visit their place and
set matters right. The cross that had been thrown out into the
river moved downwards floating on the waters for some distance,
and eventually rested on a strip of land on the opposite bank
of the river. Here at Niranom a new site for a church was secured.
During this second visit, the Apostle stayed at Niranom for two
months and during this period two hundred persons were baptized
by him giving new vigor and strength to the Christian community.
Local tradition is that most of the Nambutiris having been made
Christians by St. Thomas, left the place after giving the boxes
containing the documents relating to their landed properties to
a Kymal or Nair chieftain, who has since been known as Niranam
Petti Kaymal. Of the various miracles performed by St. Thomas
at Niranam, the most remarkable was the restoration of life to
a child of a barber put to death by anti-Christian families, who
wanted to throw the responsibility for the crime on the Apostle.
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