St. Thomas

July 3 is the feast of St. Thomas the Apostle, called "Didymus" — the twin. He is the apostle who refused to believe in the Resurrection until he had touched the wounds of the risen Christ (John 20:24-29), and whose confession "My Lord and my God" is the confession of every Christian at the elevation of the host. The same Thomas, in the Gospel of John, is the one who said "Let us also go, that we may die with him" (John 11:16) — the apostle of a blunt, sincere faith.

The ancient and consistent tradition of the Church of the East says that Thomas preached in Parthia and India, and was martyred at Mylapore, near modern Chennai, by a spear. The Basilica of San Thome at Mylapore, built by the Portuguese in the 16th century over the traditional site of his tomb, is one of the three churches in the world built over the tomb of an apostle — with Santiago de Compostela (James) and Rome (Peter and Paul). The Syro-Malabar Catholic Church traces its origin to his mission.

The relics of Thomas were, by a long tradition, translated from Mylapore to Edessa in the 3rd century, and from Edessa to the Greek island of Chios, and finally to Ortona in Abruzzo, where the Cathedral of St. Thomas the Apostle holds the relics brought back from Chios after the 1258 sack of the island. From Chennai to Ortona, the July 3 feast binds the Indian and the Italian shores of the apostle's journey.