Feast Day July 3
Without a doubt, Saint Thomas the Apostle is one of the best known of Jesus’ 12 Apostles. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke briefly list Thomas among the other Apostles, but the Gospel of John cites four specific incidents about Thomas—including the best known—his initial skepticism about the other Apostles having seen Jesus after His death and Resurrection, which gave rise to the phrase, “Doubting Thomas.” Properly understood, however, the Gospel references to Thomas, as well as accounts of his evangelizing ministry following the Resurrection present a portrait of faith and zeal, rather than doubt.
According to the Gospels, Thomas was also known as Didymus or Twin. Little is known of Thomas before he was called by Jesus, but some non-scriptural writings refer to him as being a carpenter and perhaps a relative of Jesus.
The first mention of Thomas in John’s Gospel appears when Jesus is called to visit His ailing friend, Lazarus, at Bethany. Most of the Apostles warned Jesus about going that close to Jerusalem, because there had been an attempt to stone Jesus in Jerusalem not long before. Yet Thomas told his fellow Apostles, “Let us also go to die with Him.” So, the Apostles accompanied Jesus to Bethany, where it turned out Lazarus had already died, but Jesus raised him up again. Despite their apprehension, no harm came to them.
Thomas is again mentioned in John 14, during the Last Supper, when Jesus tells His disciples, “Where [I] am going you know the way.”
Thomas replies, “Master, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”
In response, Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him.”
In the Gospel reading from John 20—heard each year during the second Sunday of Easter—Jesus first appears to the disciples gathered behind a locked door, but Thomas was not present. When they tell him, “We have seen the Lord,” Thomas exclaims—in one of the most quoted lines in the Gospels—“Unless I see the mark of the nails in His hands and put my finger into the nail marks and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”
When Jesus appears again a week later, He says to Thomas: “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.”
Thomas answers, “My Lord and my God!”
“Have you come to believe because you have seen me?” Jesus replies, “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”
Many, such as C. Bernard Ruffin, author of The Twelve: The Lives of the Apostles After Calvary, describe Thomas’ initial response as “eminently reasonable,” since Thomas was seeking the same evidence that his fellow Apostles had witnessed, and he quickly and definitively declared his belief upon Jesus as the others had.
The fourth time that Thomas is mentioned is in John 21, when the risen Jesus appears to Peter, James, John, Nathaniel, Thomas and two other disciples.
Yet the story of Thomas does not end with his encounters with the Risen Christ or even Pentecost. Eusebeius, a third century Greek Syro-Palestinian bishop, historian of Christianity and exegete, reported that shortly after Pentecost, Thomas embarked to Osorene—a region north of Palestine in what is now Eastern Turkey—where he preached and healed the sick. By some accounts, Thomas moved beyond Osorene to evangelize Armenia as well as the Parthians, Medes and Persians—now as part of modern Iran.
In addition, there is a tradition of Thomas having ventured to evangelize in India. Though that is the subject of scholarly debate, Indian Catholics—particularly in the southern Indian state of Kerala—still vigorously affirm their connection with Saint Thomas. There are also some traditional accounts of Thomas venturing to China and what is now Burma, Indonesia and Malaysia. Legends even exist of Thomas having evangelized Paraguay and Peru.
According to tradition, Thomas was martyred in Chennai, India, in 72 A.D., with the date of his death alternately designated as July 3 or December 21. Thomas was said to be buried there, but there are reports of some of his relics being taken to Edessa, Greece, and to Abruzzo, Italy. He is a patron saint of India and of architects. Major shrines to Saint Thomas include St. Thomas Cathedral Basilica in Mylapore, India; St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Church in Palayur, India, and the Basilica of St. Thomas the Apostle in Ortona, Italy. In addition to Catholicism, Saint Thomas is revered among Orthodox Christians, the Assyrian Church of the East, Anglicans, Episcopalians, Lutherans and other Christians. In the Youngstown Diocese, St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Vienna is named in his honor.
