India And St Thomas

Overview

The historic proofs of St. Thomas mission in India are many. Taking into account traditional evidence available in India and abroad. It may be said that the Apostle was approximately 17 years in India. Viz.. about 4 years in Sindh, 6 years at most in Malabar, and 7 years at Mailepuram or Mailapore. Crosses carved on stone, some of which are attributed to St. Thomas by unbroken tradition, have not been lost to posterity.
Government of India bringing out two stamps in commemoration of the Indian apostolate of St. Thomas, one in 1964 and another in 1973, and the Holy See proclaiming St. Thomas‘The Apostle of India’ and in Cardinal Tisserant bringing his bones to India and Kerala in the year 1953.

Point Of Topic !

Apostle was approximately 17 years in India

> 4 years in Sindh,
> 6 years at most in Malabar,
> and 7 years at Mailepuram or Mailapore.

Map showing the Commercial Intercourse between India and the West at the time of the Apostle.

Historians today believe that St. Thomas planted the seed of the gospel on Indian soil. This is the general trend of their thinking: During Apostolic times there were well frequented trade routes, by land and / or water, connecting North-West India (today Pakistan), the West Coast and the East Coast, with North Africa and West Asia.

Thus Alexandria, Aden, Socotra, Ormuz, Ctesiphon, Caesarea, Taxila, Broach, Kodungallur (Muziris) and even Rome were inter-linked. The witnesses of different authors belonging to different places, Churches, cultures, centuries and races ( and often speaking different languages) supporting the Apostle’s Indian mission provide an almost unassailable bulwark of evidence, along with the South Indian tradition that is woven into a myriad details of folklore, place names, family traditions, social customs, monuments, copper plates, ancient songs, liturgical texts etc..

Two stamps brought out by government of India in 1964 and 1973 to commemorate the arrival of St.Thomas in India