The Holy and All-praised Apostle Thomas (I)

The holy Apostle Thomas, called the Twin (in Greek, Didymus), was born in the Galilean city of Paneas, which Philip, the son of Herod, later named Caesarea in honour of the Roman emperor Tiberius (Caesarea Philippi). This city lay at the foot of Mount Hermon, at the eastern source of the river Jordan, where the inheritance of the tribe of Naphtali came to an end.

When our Lord Christ, in His public ministry among men in this world, went about the cities, towns and villages of Galilee and Judaea, teaching the people and healing every kind of disease, Thomas too heard His divine preaching and saw His wonderful miracles. Because of this he cleaved to the Lord with his whole being and never again left Him. Together with the other closest disciples Thomas too delighted in the words of Jesus Christ and in beholding His all-holy face; he too followed the Lord inseparably and was counted worthy to be numbered among the twelve apostles. He too was an eyewitness of all the Lord’s earthly deeds, of His Passion on the Cross and His voluntary death. After the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, Saint Thomas, by his disbelief in the words of the other apostles, strengthened still more the Church’s faith in the Lord’s Resurrection. For when the other disciples of Christ told him, “We have seen the Lord,” Thomas would not believe it, and said to the apostles:

“Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe” (John 20:25). So great is the mystery of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead that even this “unbelief” of Thomas was permitted by divine providence, so that all of us might believe deeply and without doubt in the resurrection of the Lord’s human nature from the dead, and in the ascension of this human nature into heaven and its sitting at the right hand of the Father for ever. In confirmation of this divine mystery, by which every man has been granted the possibility of deification and of returning to heaven, eight days after His radiant Resurrection from the dead the Lord appeared again to His disciples, among whom Thomas now was too, and said to him:

“Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing!” (John 20:27).

Then, at the sight of the risen Christ, when he had touched His life-giving side and His hand, Thomas cried out:

“My Lord and my God!” (ibid., verse 28).

This event assures all of us, more plainly than plain, of the truth of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, for He appeared to His disciples not like a ghost, nor in some other body, but in the very body in which He suffered on the Cross for our salvation.

After the Lord’s Ascension into heaven and the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles, they cast lots, as is well known, as to who should preach the word of God in which country. India fell to Saint Thomas by lot, so that in this distant region of Asia he might enlighten the Parthians and Medes, darkened by paganism, the Persians and Hyrcanians, the Bactrians and Brahmins, and the inhabitants of all the remotest corners of India (in ancient times all the countries of southern Asia were called India, including present-day India itself).

Thomas was very troubled that he had to go to such distant lands and wild peoples, but the Lord appeared to him in a vision, strengthened him and commanded him: always be of good courage and fear nothing, for I too will always be with you. Soon Thomas also learned from the Lord how he was to reach this country…

At about the same time the following happened:

Gundaphorus, king of India, wished to build himself a great and splendid palace, and sent one of his merchants, named Abbanes, to Palestine: go there and find me so skilled an architect that he can build me a palace like those of the Roman emperors. It was with this merchant Abbanes that the Lord sent His apostle: while Abbanes was looking for a skilled architect in Palestine, Thomas met him and told him, I am a man of great experience in the art of building. Abbanes at once hired him and took him aboard ship, and soon, as soon as a following wind arose, they set sail for India.

A few days later they put in at the harbour of a certain city, where the king’s daughter was being married, and the king was inviting everyone without distinction to the wedding. Abbanes and Thomas too went to the wedding feast. Here Thomas foretold God’s punishment on one man who had insulted him. The prophecy was fulfilled with astonishing exactness that same day, which struck the people with terror. The king too was told of what had happened. The king summoned Thomas and said to him:

“Come into my palace and bless my daughter, who has been married today!”

The apostle went into the palace and began to instruct the newly-weds in chastity: keep your virginity, preserve your purity undefiled, and such a lot will be far better for you. At last he prayed for the young woman and the young man, blessed them and departed. In their sleep the newly-weds saw Jesus Christ, who appeared to them in the likeness of Thomas and embraced them lovingly. The husband of the king’s daughter, thinking that Thomas had come back, asked:

“You left us before anyone else; how is it that you are here again?”

And the Lord answered:

“I am not Thomas, but his brother! And everyone who renounces this world and follows Me as Thomas has done shall be not only My brother in the endless life to come but also My heir, for he shall inherit My whole kingdom! So you too, My children, do not forget all that My brother Thomas has counselled you. And if, according to his counsel, you keep your virginity undefiled, you will be counted worthy to receive incorruptible crowns in My heavenly palace!”

(Such praise of virginity and of an unmarried life does not in the least mean that people cannot be saved in married life. But according to the teaching of the ancient holy fathers of the Church, those who keep their virginity will receive the highest reward in the Kingdom of Heaven, as the Revelation of John also testifies (14:1–5). That is why the all-foreseeing Lord, who knows the spiritual strength of these newly-weds, calls them to a virginal life, so that they may devote their whole lives to the service of God. It is worth noting that at this point of the Greek original of the Life of Thomas the Lord also tells the young woman and young man that if they bear children, those children will be sickly, wicked and unhappy.)

At these words the Lord became invisible; and they, rising from sleep, told each other what they had seen in the vision in their dream. When they realised that they had both seen the same thing, they got up and prayed earnestly before God all night long, and laid up deep in their hearts the words they had heard from the Lord, like precious pearls.

In the morning the king went into the newly-weds’ bedchamber and found them sitting apart from each other. In surprise he asked why they were sitting so far apart.

And they answered him:

“We are praying and beseeching God to give us strength to keep perfect chastity to the end of our lives, as we keep it now, so that in the heavenly palace we may be adorned with incorruptible crowns. So the Lord has promised us, who appeared to us here!”

Then the king understood that it was that stranger who had been in the palace the day before who had persuaded them to keep their purity. Because of this the sovereign was enraged, and at once sent servants to seize Thomas and bring him to him. But they searched for the holy apostle in vain, for he had already boarded the ship with Abbanes and set sail for India…

When they reached India, they presented themselves to King Gundaphorus, and the merchant Abbanes said to the sovereign:

“Here, O king, I have brought you a skilled architect from Palestine! He will build you palaces such as your majesty desires!”

The king was glad; he showed Thomas the place where he wished the palace to be built, fixed its dimensions, gave him a great deal of gold for the building, and himself went away somewhere.

Having received so much gold from the king, Thomas began to distribute it to the poor and needy; at the same time he laboured tirelessly in preaching the Gospel, converted many to the true faith and baptised them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Meanwhile the young man who, on the holy apostle’s advice, had vowed with his newly married royal bride to keep their purity learned that Thomas was preaching Christ in India, and came to him with his wife. Saint Thomas instructed them in the true faith and baptised them. The young woman received in baptism the name Pelagia, and afterwards shed her innocent blood for the faith of Christ, while the young man was named Dionysius in baptism and later was counted worthy of the rank of bishop. After receiving the apostle’s blessing they returned to their homeland, where they spread the glory of God’s name, converted many unbelievers to the true faith and founded churches of Christ in the cities, towns and villages…

Some years later the king of India sent servants to the holy Apostle Thomas to learn whether the building of the royal palace would soon be finished. He charged the servants to tell the sovereign that only the roof remained to be put on. The king was very glad, for he thought that Thomas really was building him a magnificent palace in this world. So he sent him still more gold, and commanded him to finish building the palace as quickly as possible and to put on it the most beautiful roof.

When Thomas again received a great deal of gold from the king, he raised his eyes and hands to heaven and gave thanks to God:

“I thank Thee, O Lord, Lover of mankind, for Thou orderest the salvation of men by divers means!”

And the gold he had received he again distributed to those who came to him asking for help, while he himself went on diligently preaching the word of God. Some time later the king learned that Thomas, it seemed, had not even begun the building, and had given away all the gold to the poor and needy; that he was not thinking of carrying out the sovereign’s command, but was going about the cities, towns and villages preaching some new God to people and working many miracles. Because of this the king was greatly enraged, and at once sent servants to seize the apostle. And when he was brought to the king, the king asked him:

“Have you built my palace?”

Saint Thomas answered:

“Yes, I have built it, and the most beautiful and magnificent of all!”

Then the king said to him:

“Well then, let us go and see the palace you have built!”

“In this earthly life you will not be able to see that palace!” the apostle answered. “Only when you depart this world will you be able to see it; then you will settle in it with joy and live there for ever!”

The king thought he was mocking him, and took Thomas’s words as an insult. So he ordered both him and the great merchant Abbanes, who had brought him, to be thrown into prison, where both were to suffer in expectation of death by torture. The king intended to have them quartered, that is, flayed alive, and then burned on a pyre. While they were in prison Abbanes reproached the apostle and said to him:

“You deceived me and made a fool of the king too when you presented yourself to us as an architect. And now you have spent the king’s gold to no purpose and ruined my life as well! On your account I, an innocent man, am suffering, and must die a terrible death! The king is a cruel man and will put us to death!”

The holy apostle calmed Abbanes and comforted him with these words:

“Do not be afraid! The time for us to be put to death has not yet come! We shall stay alive and be free, and the king will pay us great honour for the palace I have built for him in the heavenly kingdom!”

That same night the king’s brother fell gravely ill; he sent servants to the king and had them tell him:

“Your grief has saddened me too, and now from this sadness a grave illness has taken hold of me, and I am dying of it!”

And indeed, very soon after this the king’s brother died. The king forgot his former grievance, and was seized by a still greater sorrow: he grieved inconsolably and wept bitterly for the death of his beloved brother. But the angel of the Lord, who had taken up the dead man’s soul, carried it up to the heavenly dwellings, led it about everywhere and showed it a great many magnificent, wonderfully built and radiant palaces, one of which was especially outstanding and so beautiful that no human tongue could describe it.

And then the angel of the Lord asked the dead man’s soul:

“In which of these palaces would you choose to live?”

The soul of the king’s brother looked at the most beautiful palace of all and answered:

“If only I were allowed to live even in some corner of this palace, I would wish for nothing more!”

Then the angel said to him:

“You cannot live in this palace, for it belongs to your brother, and with his gold it has been built by the stranger you know of, Thomas!”

“I beseech you, my lord!” the soul said to the angel of the Lord. “Let me go back to my brother, and I will buy this palace from him, for he does not yet know how beautiful it is. And when I have bought it, bring me back here again!…”

And indeed the angel brought the soul back into the body, and the sovereign’s dead brother at once came back to life, as if waking from sleep. As soon as he opened his eyes, he asked those around him, who were utterly amazed, where his brother was, and that he should come to him at once. When the king learned that his brother had come back to life, he rejoiced beyond measure and hurried to him, and when he saw him face to face, alive and in perfect health, his joy knew no bounds. And the one raised from the dead said to him:

“O king! I am sure that you love me as your own brother! I know too that you wept inconsolably for me when I lay here lifeless, and that if it had been possible to set me free from death you would have given even half your kingdom for it!”

“Yes, that is the whole truth!” the king replied.

“Then, if you love me so,” his brother said, “I ask of you only one gift, and I beg you not to refuse me!”

The king answered:

“Everything I possess in my realm I will give you, my beloved brother!” And he confirmed his promise with an oath.

Then the brother who had been raised from the dead asked:

“Give me your palace that you have in heaven, and take all my property in exchange for it!”

At these words the king was dumbfounded and stood speechless for a long time, for astonishment had taken away even his power of speech. At last he could only say:

“How should I have a palace in heaven?!”

“Truly you have!” his brother exclaimed. “You really have in heaven such a palace as you know nothing of, and such as you have never seen under this sun! That palace was built for you by Thomas, whom you have thrown into prison and condemned to death! I saw that palace and was amazed at its unspeakable beauty and magnificence. I asked to be allowed to live even in some corner of it, but they would not let me, for the angel who was leading me said to me:

“It is impossible for you to live here, for this palace belongs to your brother, for whom Thomas, whom you know, has built it.

“And I besought the angel to let me go to you, so that I might buy the palace from you. And here I am now before you, and I beg you: if you love me, sell me your heavenly palace and take all my property and estates in exchange for it!”

Then the king rejoiced greatly over everything: over his brother’s return to this world and over the palace which, it seemed, the stranger Thomas had built for him. So he said to his brother who had been raised from the dead:

“Beloved brother! I swore that I would refuse you nothing that is subject to my authority in this world. But I did not promise you the palace that has been built in heaven. So, if you wish it so, you may take the architect we have, who can build you just such a palace too!”

Having said this, he at once sent servants to the prison to bring Saint Thomas and the merchant Abbanes, who had brought him, before the sovereign. And when they were brought, the king hurried to meet the apostle, fell at his feet and begged him: forgive me my sin against you, for I did not know what I was doing.

And the holy Apostle Thomas gave thanks to the Lord God for such mercy and began to instruct both brothers in the true faith. They received the apostle’s words with fervent hearts and were enlightened by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Soon Thomas baptised them too and taught them the Christian life, and by giving many alms the brothers gained an eternal inheritance in heaven.

The holy Apostle Thomas stayed for a while with the king and his brother and strengthened them in the holy faith, and then set out for the surrounding cities, towns and villages to preach the word of God and laboured actively for the salvation of men.

And at the time when the Apostle Thomas was enlightening the lands of India with the preaching of the Gospel, the hour came for the repose of the All-holy Mother of God, and all the Lord’s apostles were caught up into the heavens by the Holy Spirit from their various lands and brought in an instant to the garden of Gethsemane, to the bed of the all-blessed Ever-Virgin Mary (according to church tradition, this took place in the fifteenth year after the Lord’s Ascension), that is, in the year 48 after the Nativity of Christ, when the Mother of God was sixty-four years old. Then the Apostle Thomas, who was in India, was also caught up into the heavens by the Holy Spirit and brought to Jerusalem, but even so he did not arrive in time for the burial of the Mother of God’s holy body. This was accomplished by divine providence so that the faithful might be plainly assured that the Mother of God had been taken up into heaven in the body as well. For just as we were assured still more firmly of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead precisely through the “unbelief” of the holy Apostle Thomas at that time, so in this case too we learned of the taking up into heaven of the All-holy Mother of God, the Ever-Virgin Mary, precisely as a result of the Apostle Thomas’s lateness.

Saint Thomas arrived only on the third day after the burial of the Mother of God, and grieved greatly that he had not been in the garden of Gethsemane on the day of the burial, to accompany the body of the Lord’s Mother to the tomb with the other apostles and to see her all-blessed face for the last time in this world. Then the holy apostles decided by common consent to open the tomb of the Mother of God for Thomas, so that he might see her all-honourable body, venerate it and be comforted in his grief. But lo, when they opened the tomb they found nothing there but the mantle of the Mother of God. By this they were all firmly assured that the Mother of God, like her divine Son, had risen from the dead on the third day and had been taken up in the body into heaven, where she dwells exalted above all the heavenly powers and prays before the Lord for us all…

After this the holy Apostle Thomas again set out for the land of India to preach the word of God, and there he converted many to the true faith by working signs and wonders. When he came to the city of Meliapor (on the eastern coast of the peninsula of Hindustan), he enlightened its inhabitants too by preaching the Gospel. Here he strengthened people in the faith of Christ by the following miracle:

In a certain place in Meliapor there lay a tree of extraordinary size, which not only people but even huge elephants could not move from its place. Saint Thomas tied his girdle to the tree and carried it about half an hour’s walk away, where he handed it over for use in building a church of the Lord. At the sight of this the faithful were strengthened still more, while many of the unbelievers were converted to the true faith and were baptised. The holy apostle also worked another miracle here, greater than the first. Once a certain pagan priest killed his own son and laid the blame for it on the holy apostle, saying: Thomas has killed my son.

The people were greatly stirred up. The crowd that had gathered seized Thomas as a murderer and demanded that the city court put him to death with torture. And since there was no one to be found to bear witness to his innocence, the holy Apostle Thomas himself addressed both the judge and the people with this request:

“I beseech you, let me go! I will go to the murdered youth, I will ask him, and in the name of my Lord I will make him say who killed him!”

Everyone was astonished at this, and they agreed to go with him to the priest’s murdered son. When they came there, Saint Thomas raised his eyes to heaven, prayed, and then addressed the murdered youth:

“In the name of my Lord Jesus Christ I command you, young man: say, who killed you?”

And the dead youth at once spoke out:

“My father killed me!”

Then they were all greatly amazed and began to cry out:

“Great is the God whom Thomas preaches!”

The apostle was set free, while the pagan priest thus fell himself into the pit he had dug for Thomas. After this miracle a great many people were converted to the true faith and received holy baptism from the apostle.

After this Thomas made his way to a still more distant region, the land of Calamis, to preach the word of God; there King Mazdai reigned. While proclaiming the faith of Christ there, the apostle converted a woman named Syntyche, the niece of Mygdonia, wife of Charisius, the king’s favourite friend and brother-in-law. Syntyche urged Mygdonia too to come to know the truth and to believe in the one God who created the whole world and whom Saint Thomas preached. Then Mygdonia said to Syntyche:

“I should like to see for myself the man who preaches the true God, and to hear the teaching of Christ from him!”

Syntyche answered:

“If you want to see God’s apostle, put on old clothes as if you were a simple, poor woman, so that no one recognises you, and then come with me!”

Mygdonia did so and went with Syntyche. They found Saint Thomas among simple and poor people, to whom he was preaching the word of God. The women mingled with the people and listened to what Thomas was saying; he spoke much of the Lord Jesus Christ, of the true faith, of death, of the Day of Judgement, of the fire of Gehenna and of the Kingdom of Heaven. Mygdonia received all this with a sincere heart, and believed in Christ. When she went home she kept thinking of the apostle’s words, talked with her niece Syntyche only of Christ, and at last came to love Christ with her whole being. From that time on Mygdonia avoided all dealings with unbelievers as enemies of the Lord: she neither conversed with them nor went to their banquets, and in general renounced every kind of worldly pleasure. More than that, she resolved to break off married life with her husband. This grieved her husband deeply, and since he could not make Mygdonia change her mind, he went to the king himself and asked Mazdai whether his wife, Tertia, might perhaps persuade her (Tertia and Mygdonia were sisters). And indeed the queen went to Mygdonia and asked her why she did not obey her husband.

“He is a pagan,” Mygdonia replied, “an enemy of God, while I am a handmaid of the one true God, Jesus Christ, and I do not wish to be defiled by living with an unbelieving and impure man!” (According to the teaching of the holy Apostle Paul, this circumstance should not prevent a Christian wife and a pagan husband (or the reverse) from living together (see 1 Cor. 7:12–14), since by living with a Christian spouse the unbelieving person is sanctified and may even be converted. But Mygdonia is strict with herself, and has the right to be.)

When Tertia heard this, she too wished to learn who Jesus Christ was, whom Mygdonia called the true God. Then Mygdonia told her the whole content of Thomas’s preaching and urged her: you too believe in the true God. And Tertia, wishing to learn more about Jesus Christ and to be better instructed in the true faith, asked Mygdonia: show me Thomas, so that I may hear everything from him himself. On Mygdonia’s advice she secretly sent servants to the apostle and summoned him. When Saint Thomas came to the queen, both women fervently besought him to instruct them in the true faith. And he preached Christ to the sisters, enlightened them with the light of faith, washed them in the font of baptism, and taught them to keep God’s commandments and to live virtuously. The women engraved deep in their hearts all they had heard from the holy apostle, and resolved to devote their whole lives to the Lord and to serve Him in holiness and purity, not living with their husbands, as being unbelievers.

And Saint Thomas, by divine power, went on working many miracles and healing every kind of illness. Hearing his preaching and seeing his wonders, many were converted, not only ordinary citizens but even courtiers of the king. The king’s only son, named Azan, also believed in Christ and received holy baptism from the apostle, for the Lord Jesus Christ Himself was at work through His apostles, multiplying His Church and spreading the glory of His name everywhere!

When Queen Tertia returned to the palace she gave herself to fasting and prayer, and refused her husband bodily union. The king was astonished at such a change in his wife’s life, and once said to his friend and brother-in-law Charisius:

“I wanted to bring back your wife for you, and now I have lost my own! She too treats me as Mygdonia treats you!”

Because of this the king and Charisius looked closely into the cause of such a change in their wives, and learned that some foreigner named Thomas had taught the women faith in Christ and persuaded them to break off married life with their husbands. They learned too that as a result of Thomas’s preaching even the prince Azan had believed in Christ, as had many servants and high officials of the royal court, while among the common people the number of followers of the new faith was beyond counting. Because of this both the king and his brother-in-law were greatly enraged, and ordered their servants to seize Thomas and throw him into prison. Soon he was brought before the king’s court.

The sovereign asked:

“Who are you: a slave or a free man?”

Thomas answered:

“I am the slave of Him over whom you have no authority!”

“I see that you are a crafty slave!” the king said to him. “No doubt you have run away from your own master and come to our land to lead the people astray and to trouble our wives… Tell me, then, who is your master?”

“My master is the Lord of heaven and earth!” the holy apostle replied. “God and Creator of every creature. He has sent me here to preach His name and to convert people to the true faith from their former error.”

The king flew into a rage:

“Stop this crafty talk, you liar, and hear my command: just as you have led our wives astray with your cunning and made them turn away from us, so now bring our wives back to us, or you will regret it! For if you do not see to it that our wives live with us again in their former love and unity, we will put you to a cruel death!”

To the king’s harsh words Thomas answered just as harshly:

“It is not fitting that the handmaids of Christ should live in married union with lawless husbands! It is not fitting that the faithful should be defiled and polluted by wicked unbelievers.”

Hearing this, King Mazdai flew into a terrible rage and ordered the holy apostle to be tortured. First they brought red-hot iron plates, to make Thomas stand on them barefoot. But as soon as the apostle set his foot on them, water suddenly appeared under his feet and cooled the iron. Then he was thrown into a heated furnace and left all night in its blazing fire; but the next day, when the furnace door was opened, Thomas came out of it alive and completely unharmed.

These miracles did not bring the king to his senses, nor Charisius, who gave the sovereign this advice:

“Make him bow down and offer sacrifice to our ‘god’, the sun, so that by this he may anger his own God, who has kept him unharmed from torments until now!”

But as soon as the holy apostle was brought to the idol of the sun, it at once melted like wax. The faithful rejoiced beyond measure at the sight of such power of God the Creator, and a great multitude of unbelievers too was added to the Lord. But the idol’s servants murmured loudly against Thomas for destroying their “deity”, and demanded that the king put the apostle to death. The king too was at a loss and no longer knew what means to devise to destroy him; for he feared the people, and also his own servants and high officials, many of whom had already believed in Christ as the true God.

Then the king took Thomas and went out of the city with his soldiers. Everyone thought that the king wished to see some miracle from the apostle. But as soon as they were about half an hour’s walk from the city walls, the sovereign handed Thomas over to five soldiers and ordered them to take him up a mountain and run him through with spears there. He himself went off to the neighbouring city of Axium. Meanwhile the prince Azan and another Christian, named Siphorus, had come out of the city and followed in the apostle’s footsteps, and now, seeing him in the soldiers’ hands condemned to death, they wept bitterly for him. Then Thomas asked the soldiers’ leave to pray, and when he had prayed he ordained Siphorus priest and Azan deacon, and charged them to care for the increase of the faithful and the spread of the Church of Christ. After this the soldiers ran the holy Apostle Thomas through with five spears. Siphorus and Azan stayed long beside their teacher, and then buried his holy body with great honour (the place of the apostle’s martyrdom is still shown today at Kalurmin, about six kilometres from the city of Malipur, where Saint Thomas often withdrew to pray). After the burial they sat a long time by the apostle’s tomb in deep grief. And lo, Saint Thomas appeared to them in a vision and told them to return to the city and strengthen the brethren in the faith. They returned, and strengthened by Saint Thomas’s blessing they governed the Church of Christ successfully.

King Mazdai and Charisius tormented their wives for a long time, but achieved nothing and could not persuade them to live in married union. And when they understood that they could not subdue them, they were forced to let them live freely, for they saw that the women would sooner choose death than life with them. So the God-loving sisters were freed from the yoke of married life and gave themselves to a strict and virtuous life: they prayed continually, fasted and served the Lord faithfully, and so brought the greatest benefit to the Church.

Some years later one of King Mazdai’s sons was seized by an evil spirit, and no one could heal him, for a very fierce demon had settled in him. The sovereign was greatly distressed by his son’s illness, and since he had heard that in his lifetime Saint Thomas had driven many evil spirits out of people, he resolved to open his tomb, take one of the apostle’s bones and hang it round the neck of his afflicted son, so as to free him in this way from the devil’s torment. And just when he was about to carry out his intention, Saint Thomas appeared to him in a vision in his sleep and said to him:

“You did not believe in me when I was alive, and now you want to receive help from a dead man? But do not remain in your unbelief, and my Lord Jesus Christ will be merciful to you.”

This vision strengthened still more the king’s desire to open the apostle’s tomb and carry out his intention. And indeed King Mazdai went to the place where Saint Thomas had been buried and opened the tomb, but found nothing there, for a Christian man had secretly taken the apostle’s holy relics and translated them to Mesopotamia, to a fitting place. Then the sovereign took a handful of earth from that place, wrapped it in a cloth and hung it round his son’s neck. At the same time he besought the Lord in prayer:

“Lord Jesus Christ! I beseech Thee, heal my son through the prayer of Thy holy Apostle Thomas! And then I too will believe in Thee as the true God!”

And as soon as he had finished saying these words, the devil at once left the prince, and the boy was completely healed. Because of this King Mazdai believed in Christ, and together with all his nobles and servants received holy baptism from the priest Siphorus. Then the hearts of the faithful were filled with the greatest joy, for the idols were cast down everywhere and their temples destroyed, and Christian churches were built in their place. The word of God was preached everywhere, and through the prayerful intercession of the holy Apostle Thomas the true faith was established throughout India.

After receiving baptism Mazdai sincerely repented of his former sins and begged everyone to help him with their prayers. The presbyter Siphorus too called on all the faithful to help the sovereign:

“Pray for King Mazdai, that our Lord Jesus Christ may look on him with mercy and forgive him all his sins!…”

And indeed the whole Church prayed for the king, and he was granted the forgiveness of his sins: the converted king lived a life pleasing to God and helped the Church of Christ greatly. And at the place where the relics of the holy Apostle Thomas had lain, many miracles and wonderful healings took place through his prayers.

According to the testimony of church writers, the holy relics of the Apostle Thomas were later (in 385) translated to the city of Edessa. But, as is known, some of his relics remained in India as well. In Edessa a magnificent church was built over these holy relics, and pilgrims came to it even from distant lands. In the reign of the Emperor Anastasius (490–518) the holy relics of the Apostle Thomas were translated to Constantinople, where a church was built in his name. During the Fourth Crusade (1204) Andrew II, king of Hungary, took Saint Thomas’s right hand to his homeland. And the skull of the Apostle Thomas rests in Georgia, in the Sioni cathedral church in Tbilisi. Through the prayers of this holy apostle of the Lord many miracles were worked and are still worked, for the help of all Orthodox Christians and to the honour and glory of our Lord and God Jesus Christ, to whom worship is due with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever. Amen.