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.
