St. Thomas the Apostle

Ancient sources, such as "The Acts of Thomas", an account by the Syrian philosopher Bardaison (d. 222), as well as traditions in India, tell us that St. Thomas the Apostle labored to convert the people in the regions of Persia and India.  Indeed, Christianity was brought to India in very early times, and the Christians of Kerala trace their origin back to St. Thomas.

St. Jerome passes on this information from his short book, "The Lives of the Apostles":

"Thomas the Apostle preached the Gospel of the Lord to the Parthians, the Medes, the Persians, the Carmanians, the Hyrcanians, the Bactrians, and the Magi, as it has been handed down to us.  He sleeps in the city of Calamina, which is in India [Persia]."

St. Gregory the Great comments, in one of his homilies, on the Gospel account of St. Thomas's doubts regarding the Resurrection of The Lord:

"Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.  This disciple was absent, and when he returned and heard what had happened, he refused to believe.  The Lord came again and showed his side to the unbelieving disciple, for him to touch.  He also showed his hands.  When he had showed the mark of his wounds, he healed the wound of Thomas's infidelity.  Dearly beloved, do you believe that it was by chance that the elect disciple was absent at that time so that after he came back, he heard; and after he heard, he doubted; and after he doubted, he touched; and after he had touched, he believed?  This did not happen by chance, but in the divine dispensation.  The Lord acted in this wonderful way, through heavenly mercy, so that when the doubting disciple touched the wounds in the flesh of his Master, The Lord might heal the wounds of our infidelity.  Thomas's infidelity benefitted us more than it benefitted him in restoring him to the faith of the believing disciples, for when he was brought back to the faith through his touching of the wounds of Christ, our minds were solidified in the faith, and every doubt of ours was taken away.  Thus, after his Resurrection, The Lord permitted his disciple to doubt lest he leave us in doubt, just as before his Birth he wished for Mary to have a husband, although there was no intercourse.  And so it came to pass that the disciple who doubted and touched is the witness of the truth of the Resurrection just as Mary's husband was the guardian of her most pure virginity."