Doubting Thomas, the apostle whose name simply means twin
Thomas refused to believe in the risen Jesus until he could put his finger in the nail marks, and the phrase doubting Thomas has stuck ever since. Yet Christians in Kerala remember him very differently: as the missionary who landed on India's Malabar Coast in AD 52 and founded their churches.
His name comes from the Aramaic Tʾōmā, meaning twin, and the Greek Didymos says the same thing. Early Syrian tradition called him Judas Thomas, and the Nag Hammadi Gospel of Thomas opens by naming Didymus Judas Thomas as the recorder of Jesus's secret sayings. One text from that library, the Book of Thomas the Contender, even presents him as the twin of Jesus himself.
The Gospel of John gives him three memorable moments. When Lazarus has died and the disciples fear returning to Judea, Thomas urges them to go and die with their master. Later he asks how they can know the way when they do not know where Jesus is going. Finally, after the resurrection, he demands physical proof, then answers 'My Lord and my God' once Jesus invites him to touch the wounds. A later apocryphal text neatly reverses the story, making Thomas the sole witness to Mary's assumption and the other apostles the doubters, until they find her empty tomb and the girdle she let fall.
Eusebius recorded that Thomas and Bartholomew were sent to Parthia and northwest India. The Saint Thomas Christians hold that he sailed to Muziris, a Chera port trading with Rome, with a Jewish merchant named Habban, founded seven communities along the Periyar River and the coast, and was martyred at Mylapore near Madras in AD 72. Historians still dispute the visit, though Robert Eric Frykenberg judged such traditions very ancient and deeply loved. Ephrem the Syrian wrote that a merchant carried his remains to Edessa, and some relics reached Ortona in Italy in 1258.
His feast wandered through the calendar. Rome placed it on 21 December in the 9th century, then moved it to 3 July in 1969 to keep it clear of Advent. Indian Christians now celebrate 3 July as their own day, and Thomas remains a popular name in Kerala.
Source: Thomas the Apostle
