Point Of Topic !

This early Christian narration, most probably by the below specified authors points the mission and Apostolate of St. Thomas in India in which his other mission fields are also specified. Here you find an evaluation how the other early documents supports the Indian Apostolate of St. Thomas as per the narration in the book called 'Acts of St. Thomase'.

Origen, comm. on Genesis, III.
The Clementine Recognitions, IX, 29
Eusebius, H. E., III., I.
Rufinus, H. E.,II.,5.
Socrates, H.E., I., 19. 17

We find that Clement, Origen, Eusebius and others who assign Parthia to St. Thomas all must have written before the Christian leaders had an opportunity to come together and evaluate the spread of the Gospel in various parts of the world. But once the representatives of the different Churches came together at Nicaea for the first Ecumenical Council in 325 and exchanged notes we find almost all the testimonies recorded thereafter unanimously speaking of India as the field of Apostle St. Thomas and we hear less and less about Parthia, although it is true, some later authorities appear to attempt a reconciliation of the two traditions.

In spite of what has been written about the differences between the Syriac and Greek texts of the Acts, Gondapheres according to most scholars outside Kerala, is the King to whose court the Apostle came in the company of Habban the merchant. Writers in contact with Edessa and Mesopotamia, which had considerable and constant contacts with India, generally give ‘India’ as the field of St. Thomas. The so-called Alexandrian witnesses speak of Parthia, basing their evidence perhaps on a tradition that originated not in Alexandria itself but Caesarea Maritima, the great port of Herod with which Clement, Origen, Eusebius, etc. had intimate contacts (see biographical notes above). But as these authorities were also connected with the School of Alexandria many call this today the Alexandrian tradition.

It is quite possible and probable that St. Thomas was recruited by the royal representative from Caesarea. Caesarea was perhaps the one port where the latest architectural technologies were being effectively utilized, and it is natural that one who wanted to have some new form of construction would turn to that place. Was St. Thomas in reality working in Caesarea as a carpenter and architect?

The western tradition and the Indian East Coast tradition, thus definitely point to the Apostle’s Indian Apostolate.

Sources : Dr. Wright (Ed.), Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, London, 1871 (Syriac Text in Vol.1, English translation in Vol. II); Rev. Paul Bedjan, Acta Martyrum et Sanctorum, Vol. III, Leipsic-Paris, 1892. Other Syriac texts, Greek, Latin, Ethiopic, Arabic, Armenian versions are discussed in A. E. Medlycott, India and the Apostle St. Thomas, London 1905, (hereafter Medlycott). Appendix, pp. 221 -225.