The historic proofs of St. Thomas mission in India
are many. Taking into account traditional evidence
available in India and abroad. It may may be said
that the Apostle was approximately 17 years
in India. Viz.. about 4 years in Sindh, 6 years
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.
[SESSION
TOPICS]
>
Overview
> Proof of coming
> Indian Context
> King Gondaphar
> In North India
> In South India >
Malabar History
Apostle
was approximately 17 years in India
> 4 years in Sindh,
> 6 years years at most in Malabar,
> and 7 years at Mailepuram or Mailapore.
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.
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, placenames,
family traditions, social customs, monuments, copper plates, ancient
songs, liturgical texts etc..
