Certain Syrian Bishops Sent To India In 1504,
Whose Report Is Given By Assemani, Heard That The Church Had Begun To Be
Occupied By Some Christian People.
But Barbosa, a few years later, found it
half in ruins and in the charge of a Mahomedan Fakir, who kept a lamp
burning.
There are two St. Thomas's Mounts in the same vicinity, the Great and the
Little Mount. A church was built upon the former by the Portuguese and
some sanctity attributed to it, especially in connection with the cross
mentioned below, but I believe there is no doubt that the Little Mount
was the site of the ancient church.
The Portuguese ignored the ancient translation of the Saint's remains to
Edessa, and in 1522, under the Viceroyalty of Duarte Menezes, a commission
was sent to Mailapur, or San Tome as they called it, to search for the
body. The narrative states circumstantially that the Apostle's bones were
found, besides those of the king whom he had converted, etc. The supposed
relics were transferred to Goa, where they are still preserved in the
Church of St. Thomas in that city. The question appears to have become a
party one among Romanists in India, in connection with other differences,
and I see that the authorities now ruling the Catholics at Madras are
strong in disparagement of the special sanctity of the localities, and of
the whole story connecting St. Thomas with Mailapur. (Greg. Turon. Lib.
Mirac. I. p. 85; Tr.R.A.S. I. 761; Assemani, III. Pt. II. pp. 32,
450; Novus Orbis (ed. 1555), p. 210; Maffei, Bk. VIII.; Cathay, pp.
81, 197, 374-377, etc.)
The account of the Saint's death was no doubt that current among the
native Christians, for it is told in much the same way by Marignolli and
by Barbosa, and was related also in the same manner by one Diogo
Fernandes, who gave evidence before the commission of Duarte Menezes, and
who claimed to have been the first Portuguese visitor of the site. (See
De Couto, Dec. V. Liv. vi. cap. 2, and Dec. VII. Liv. x. cap. 5.)
[Illustration: St. Thomas Localities at Madras.]
As Diogo de Couto relates the story of the localities, in the shape which
it had taken by the middle of the 16th century, both Little and Great
Mounts were the sites of Oratories which the Apostle had frequented;
during prayer on the Little Mount he was attacked and wounded, but fled to
the Great Mount, where he expired. In repairing a hermitage which here
existed, in 1547, the workmen came upon a stone slab with a cross and
inscription carved upon it. The story speedily developed itself that this
was the cross which had been embraced by the dying Apostle, and its
miraculous virtues soon obtained great fame. It was eventually set up over
an altar in the Church of the Madonna, which was afterwards erected on the
Great Mount, and there it still exists. A Brahman impostor professed to
give an interpretation of the inscription as relating to the death of St.
Thomas, etc., and this was long accepted.
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