Editing Thomas the Apostle (section)

== Later history and traditions ==
''The Passing of Mary'', adjudged heretical by [[Pope Gelasius I]] in 494, was attributed to [[Joseph of Arimathea]].{{sfn|Lewis|1927|p=}}{{sfn|Robinson|1926|p=33}} The document states that Thomas was the only witness of the [[Assumption of Mary]] into heaven. The other apostles were miraculously transported to Jerusalem to witness her death. Thomas was left in India, but after her first burial, he was transported to her tomb, where he witnessed her bodily assumption into heaven, from which she dropped her [[Girdle of Thomas|girdle]]. In an inversion of the story of Thomas' doubts, the other apostles are skeptical of Thomas' story until they see the empty tomb and the girdle.<ref name="ccel" /> Thomas' receipt of the girdle is commonly depicted in medieval and pre-[[Council of Trent]] Renaissance art.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Issue 17 {{!}} Vidimus |url=https://www.vidimus.org/issues/issue-17/ |access-date=2023-07-18 |language=en-US}}</ref>{{sfn|Norman|1993|pp=1–42}}

=== Mission in India ===
{{Main|Saint Thomas Christians|Christianity in India|Christianity in Tamil Nadu|Christianity in Kerala}}

[[File:Postal stamp of St Thomas.jpg|thumb|upright|The [[India Post|Postal Department of India]] issued a stamp commemorating his mission to the country.|right]]
According to traditional accounts of the [[Saint Thomas Christians]] of India, the Apostle Thomas landed in [[Muziris]] ([[Cranganore Fort|Cranganore]]) on ancient [[Tamilakam]], present day Kerala coast in 52 and was martyred in [[Mylapore]], near [[Chennai|Madras]], [[Tamil Nadu]] in 72.{{sfn|Fahlbusch|Bromiley|Lochman|Mbiti|2008|p=285}}{{sfn|Slapak|1995|p=27}}{{sfn|Johnson|Zacharia|2016}}<ref name="stthoma"/> He is believed by the [[Saint Thomas Christian]] tradition to have established [[Ezharappallikal|seven churches (communities)]] in Kerala. These churches are at Kodungallur, [[St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, Palayoor|Palayoor]], [[Kottakkavu Mar Thoma Syro-Malabar Pilgrim Church, North Paravur|Kottakkavu]] (Paravur), [[Kokkamangalam]], [[Niranam Church|Niranam]], [[Nilackal St. Thomas Church|Nilackal (Chayal)]], [[Kollam]], and [[Thiruvithamcode Arappally|Thiruvithamcode]].<ref>{{cite web |title=History |url=http://www.payyappilly.org/history |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150704231759/http://www.payyappilly.org/history/ |archive-date=4 July 2015 |website=Payyappilly Palakkappilly Nasrani}}</ref> Thomas baptized several families.{{sfn|Mani|2016|p=14}} Many families claim to have origins almost as far back as these, and the religious historian Robert Eric Frykenberg notes that: "Whatever dubious historicity may be attached to such local traditions, there can be little doubt as to their great antiquity or to their great appeal in the popular imagination."{{sfn|Frykenberg|2008|pp=101–102}}

{{blockquote|It was to a land of dark people he was sent, to clothe them by Baptism in white robes. His grateful dawn dispelled India's painful darkness. It was his mission to espouse India to the One-Begotten. The merchant is blessed for having so great a treasure. [[Edessa, Mesopotamia|Edessa]] thus became the blessed city by possessing the greatest pearl India could yield. Thomas works miracles in India, and at Edessa Thomas is destined to baptize peoples perverse and steeped in darkness, and that in the land of India.|Hymns of [[Ephrem the Syrian|Saint Ephrem]], edited by Lamy (Ephr. Hymni et Sermones, IV).}}

{{poemquote|... Into what land shall I fly from the just?
I stirred up Death the Apostles to slay, that by their death I might escape their blows.
But harder still am I now stricken: the Apostle I slew in India has overtaken me in Edessa; here and there he is all himself.
There went I, and there was he: here and there to my grief I find him.|quoted in {{harvnb|Medlycott|1905|loc=Ch II}}}}

[[Ephrem the Syrian]], a [[Doctor of the Church|doctor]] of [[Syriac Christianity]]<!---not just Syriac BTW--->, writes in the forty-second of his "Carmina Nisibina" that the Apostle was put to death in India, and that his remains were subsequently buried in [[Edessa]], brought there by an unnamed merchant.{{sfn|Medlycott|1905|p=157}}

According to Eusebius' record, Thomas and Bartholomew were assigned to [[Parthia]] and northwest India.{{sfn|Medlycott|1905|pp=1–17, 213–297}}{{sfn|Farquhar|1926|p=30}}{{sfn|Smith|1914|p=235}}{{sfn|Brown|1956|pp=49–59}} The ''[[Didascalia]]'' (dating from the end of the 3rd century) states, "India and all countries condering it, even to the farthest seas... received the apostolic ordinances from Judas Thomas, who was a guide and ruler in the church which he built."

According to traditional accounts, Thomas is believed to have left northwest India when an attack threatened and traveled by vessel to the [[Malabar Coast]], possibly visiting southeast [[Arabia]] and [[Socotra archipelago|Socotra]] en route, and landing at the former flourishing port of [[Muziris]] (modern-day [[North Paravur]] and [[Kodungalloor]]) (c. 50) in the company of a Jewish merchant Abbanes/Habban.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}} From there he is said to have preached the gospel throughout the Malabar coast. The various churches he founded were located mainly on the [[Periyar River]] and its tributaries and along the coast, where there were Jewish colonies.

=== Alleged visit to China ===
[[File:Silk route.jpg|thumb|right|Map of ancient [[Silk Road]] and [[Spice Route]]]]
Thomas's alleged visit to China is mentioned in the books and church traditions of [[Saint Thomas Christians]] in India,{{sfn|Bays|2011|loc=Ch. 1}} some of whom claim descent from the early Christians evangelized by Thomas the Apostle in 52. For example, it is found in the Malayalam ballad ''Thoma Ramban Pattu'' (The Song of the Lord Thomas) with the earliest manuscript being from the 17th century.{{sfn|Curtin|Nath|2017|loc= publisher's notes}} The sources clearly have Thomas coming to India, then to China, and back to India, where he died.{{sfn|Bays|2011|loc=Ch. 1}}

In other attested sources, the tradition of making Thomas the apostle of China is found in the "Law of Christianity" (Fiqh al-naṣrāniyya),{{sfn|Hoenerbach|Spies|1956|p=}} a compilation of juridical literature by [[Ibn al-Ṭayyib]] ([[Nestorianism|Nestorian]] theologian and physician who died in 1043 in [[Baghdad]]). Later, in the [[Nomocanon]] of [[Abdisho bar Berika]] (metropolitan of Nisibis and Armenia, died in 1318) and the breviary of the [[Chaldean Catholic Church|Chaldean Church]]{{sfn|Gilman|Klimkeit|2016|p=}} it is written:
{{Blockquote|text=
1. Through St. Thomas the error of idolatry vanished from India.

2. Through St. Thomas the Chinese and Ethiopians were converted to the truth.

3. Through St. Thomas they accepted the sacrament of baptism and the adoption of sons.

4. Through St. Thomas they believed in and confessed the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit.

5. Through St. Thomas they preserved the accepted faith of the one God.

6. Through St. Thomas the life-giving splendors rose in all India.

7. Through St. Thomas the Kingdom of Heaven took wing and ascended to '''China'''.|author=Translated by [[Athanasius Kircher]] in [[China Illustrata]] (1667)|title=''Office of St. Thomas for the Second Nocturn''|source=Gaza of the Church of St. Thomas of Malabar, Chaldean Breviary}}

In its nascent form, this tradition is found at the earliest in the [[Zuqnin Chronicle]] (775 CE) and may have originated in the late [[Sasanian Empire|Sasanian]] period.{{sfn|Tubach|1995|pp=397–430}}{{sfn|Takahashi|2011}} Perhaps it originated as a 3rd-century pseudepigraphon where Thomas would have converted the Magi (in the [[Gospel of Matthew]]) to Christianity as they dwelled in the land of Shir (land of [[Serica|Seres]], [[Tarim Basin]], near what was the world's easternmost sea for many people in antiquity).{{sfn|Andrade|2018|pp=58–59}} Additionally, the testimony of [[Arnobius|Arnobius of Sicca]], active shortly after 300, maintains that the Christian message had arrived in India and among the Persians, Medians, and Parthians (along with the [[Serica|Seres]]).{{sfn|Arnobius of Sicca|1949|p=125}}

=== Possible travel into Indonesia ===
According to [[Kurt E. Koch]], Thomas the Apostle possibly traveled into Indonesia via India with Indian traders.{{sfn|Koch|1972|p=}}

=== Paraguayan legend ===
Ancient oral tradition retained by the [[Guaraní people|Guaraní]] tribes of [[Paraguay]] claims that the Apostle Thomas was in Paraguay and preached to them under the name of Pa'í Sumé or Avaré Sumé (while in Peru he was known as Tumé).<ref>{{Cite web |author=Domingo Aguilera |title=Leyenda De Santo Tomé o Avaré Sumé / Pa'i Sume Rehegua |website=Compilación de Mitos y Leyendas del Paraguay - Bibliografía Recomendada |publisher=Portal Guaraní |trans-title=Legend Of Saint Tome or Avaré Sumé / About Father Sume |trans-website=Compilation of Myths and Legends of Paraguay - Recommended Bibliography |language=Guarani |url=https://www.portalguarani.com/detalles_museos_otras_obras.php?id=103&id_obras=2374&id_otras=369 |access-date=2023-09-26}}</ref>
{{blockquote|in the estate of our college, called Paraguay, and twenty leagues distant from Asumpcion. This place stretches out on one side into a pleasant plain, affording pasture to a vast quantity of cattle; on the other, where it looks towards the south, it is surrounded by hills and rocks; in one of which a cross piled up of three large stones is visited, and held in great veneration by the natives for the sake of St. Thomas; for they believe, and firmly maintain, that the Apostle, seated on these stones as on a chair, formerly preached to the assembled Indians.|source={{harvnb|Dobrizhoffer|1822|p=385}} }}

Almost 150 years prior to Dobrizhoffer's arrival in Paraguay, another Jesuit Missionary, F. J. [[Antonio Ruiz de Montoya]] recollected the same oral traditions from the Paraguayan tribes. He wrote:

{{blockquote|...The paraguayan tribes they have this very curious tradition. They claim that a very holy man (Thomas the Apostle himself), whom they call "Paí Thome", lived amongst them and preached to them the Holy Truth, wandering and carrying a wooden cross on his back.|source={{harvnb|Ruiz de Montoya|1639}} }}

The sole recorded research done about the subject was during [[José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia]]'s reign after the [[Independence of Paraguay]]. This is mentioned by Franz Wisner von Morgenstern, an Austro-Hungarian engineer who served in the Paraguayan armies prior and during the [[Paraguayan War]]. According to Wisner, some Paraguayan miners while working nearby some hills at the [[Caaguazú Department]] found some stones with ancient letters carved in them. [[Dictator]] Francia sent his finest experts to inspect those stones, and they concluded that the letters carved in those stones were [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]-like symbols, but they couldn't translate them nor figure out the exact date when those letters were carved.{{sfn|Wisner von Morgenstern|1998|p=198}} No further recorded investigations exist, and according to Wisner, people believed that the letters were made by Thomas the Apostle, following the tradition.