Yet in 1504, which is several years earlier than
Barbosa's voyage, the Syrian Bishop Jaballaha, who had been sent by the
Patriarch to take charge of the Indian Christians, reported that the House
of St. Thomas had begun to be inhabited by some Christians, who were
engaged in restoring it.
Mr. W.R. Philipps has a valuable paper on The Connection of St. Thomas
the Apostle with India in the Indian Antiquary, XXXII., 1903, pp. 1-15,
145-160; he has come to the following conclusions: "(1) There is good
early evidence that St. Thomas was the apostle of the Parthian empire; and
also evidence that he was the apostle of 'India' in some limited sense,
- probably of an 'India' which included the Indus Valley, but nothing to
the east or south of it. (2) According to the Acts, the scene of the
martyrdom of St. Thomas was in the territory of a king named, according to
the Syriac version, Mazdai, to which he had proceeded after a visit to the
city of a king named, according to the same version, Gudnaphar or
Gundaphar. (3) There is no evidence at all that the place where St. Thomas
was martyred was in Southern India; and all the indications point to
another direction. (4) We have no indication whatever, earlier than that
given by Marco Polo, who died 1324, that there ever was even a tradition
that St. Thomas was buried in Southern India."
In a recent and learned work (Die Thomas Legende, 1912, 8vo.) Father J.
Dahlmann has tried to prove that the story of the travels of St. Thomas in
India has an historical basis.
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