At The Very Time Of Polo's Homeward Voyage, John Of Monte
Corvino On His Way To China Spent Thirteen Months
In Maabar, and in a
letter thence in 1292-1293 he speaks of the church of St. Thomas there,
having
Buried in it the companion of his travels, Friar Nicholas of
Pistoia.
But the tradition of Thomas's preaching in India is very old, so old that
it probably is, in its simple form, true. St. Jerome accepts it, speaking
of the Divine Word as being everywhere present in His fullness: "cum Thoma
in India, cum Petro Romae, cum Paulo in Illyrico," etc. (Scti Hieron
Epistolae, LIX, ad Marcetlam.) So dispassionate a scholar as Professor
H.H. Wilson speaks of the preaching and martyrdom of St. Thomas in S.
India as "occurrences very far from invalidated by any arguments yet
adduced against the truth of the tradition." I do not know if the date is
ascertainable of the very remarkable legend of St. Thomas in the apocryphal
Acts of the Apostles, but it is presumably very old, though subsequent to
the translation of the relics (real or supposed) to Edessa, in the year
394, which is alluded to in the story. And it is worthy of note that this
legend places the martyrdom and original burial-place of the Saint upon a
mount. Gregory of Tours (A.D. 544-595) relates that "in that place in
India where the body of Thomas lay before it was transported to Edessa,
there is a monastery and a temple of great size and excellent structure and
ornament. In it God shows a wonderful miracle; for the lamp that stands
alight before the place of sepulture keeps burning perpetually, night and
day, by divine influence, for neither oil nor wick are ever renewed by
human hands;" and this Gregory learned from one Theodorus, who had visited
the spot.
The apocryphal history of St. Thomas relates that while the Lord was still
upon earth a certain King of India, whose name was Gondaphorus, sent to
the west a certain merchant called Abban to seek a skilful architect to
build him a palace, and the Lord sold Thomas to him as a slave of His own
who was expert in such work. Thomas eventually converts King Gondaphorus,
and proceeds to another country of India ruled by King Meodeus, where he
is put to death by lances. M. Reinaud first, I believe, pointed out the
remarkable fact that the name of the King Gondaphorus of the legend is the
same with that of a King who has become known from the Indo-Scythian
coins, Gondophares, Yndoferres, or Gondaferres. This gives great
interest to a votive inscription found near Peshawar, and now in the
Lahore Museum, which appears to bear the name of the same King. This
Professor Dowson has partially read: "In the 26th year of the great King
Guna ... pharasa, on the seventh day of the month Vaisakha." ...
General Cunningham has read the date with more claim to precision:
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