Saint Thomas
Apostle
- Feast Day
- July 3
- Life
- d. 72
- Born
- Galilee
Saint Thomas, called Didymus (the Twin) in the Gospel of John (John 11:16, 20:24, 21:2), was one of the Twelve Apostles. The Synoptic Gospels list him among the Twelve (Matthew 10:3, Mark 3:18, Luke 6:15) but record nothing distinctive of him. The Gospel of John gives him a marked personality: it is Thomas who proposes to go to Judea with Jesus to die with him (John 11:16), Thomas who at the Last Supper asks, Lord, we know not where you are going, and how can we know the way? prompting Christ's reply, I am the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:5-6).
Most famously, Thomas was absent when the risen Lord first appeared to the assembled disciples and refused to believe without seeing and touching the wounds (John 20:24-25). Eight days later Christ appeared again and invited him to do so. Thomas's confession, My Lord and my God (John 20:28), is the explicit divine acknowledgement that closes the Gospel of John, the climactic profession of Christ's divinity in the New Testament.
The earliest Christian tradition, attested by Origen (cited in Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 3.1) and the third-century Acts of Thomas, holds that Thomas evangelized Parthia and India. The Saint Thomas Christians of Kerala, on the Malabar Coast of southwestern India, trace their origin to his preaching, with seven traditional foundations dating to A.D. 52. He is said to have been martyred at Mylapore on the Coromandel Coast and buried there. His relics were translated to Edessa in the third century and from there to Ortona in Italy.
The Feast of Saint Thomas, observed on July 3 since the post-Vatican II reform of the Calendar (formerly December 21), gives the Church the apostle whose initial doubt has become for the faithful a privileged path to faith. As Saint Gregory the Great wrote, the doubting Thomas, by touching the wounds, healed the wound of our unbelief. His confession My Lord and my God is uttered by the priest at the elevation of the consecrated Host in many devotional prayer-books and is praised by Pope Saint John Paul II in Ecclesia de Eucharistia (2003) as a model of Eucharistic faith.
Patronages
India · architects · construction workers · those who doubt
Catholic Churches Named After Saint Thomas
20 parishes on Catholic Church Times share Saint Thomas's name. Find their Mass times, confession schedules, and adoration hours:
- St. Thomas Catholic Parish — Lenasia
- St. Thomas Aquinas Catechetical Centre — Mulilansolo
- St. Thomas Parish — Bulawayo
- St. Thomas — Milan, WI
- Saint Thomas More Newman Center — Vermillion, SD
- St Thomas' Syro-Malabar Mission, Cairns — QLD
- St Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church — Timaru North
- St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church — Winton
- St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church — Dipton
- Our Lady and Saint Thomas of Hereford, Ilkeston — Ilkeston, ENG
- Our Lady of Beauchief & St Thomas of Canterbury, Meadowhead — Meadowhead, ENG
- St Teresa of the Child Jesus and SS John Fisher and Thomas More — Beaconsfield, ENG
- St. Thomas Aquinas Parish — St. Lawrence, NL
- Saint-Thomas — Montmagny, QC
- St. Thomas of Villanueva Parish — Bayawan, NEGROS ORIENTAL
- Paroisse St-Thomas-d’Aquin — Astorville, ON
- Parish of St. Thomas Aquinas — Libertad, ANTIQUE
- St. Thomas Aquinas Parish — Sto. Tomas, PANGASINAN
- St. Thomas Aquinas Parish — Sto. Tomas, BATANGAS
- St. Thomas More — Fairview, AB
Sources