According to all major traditions—Indian, East Syrian, Graeco-Roman, and Mylapur—St. Thomas the Apostle met a martyr’s death in India. The long-standing tradition among the St. Thomas Christians of India locates this event at Mylapur in the ancient Pandiyan kingdom. From time immemorial, these Christians have made pilgrimages to his tomb. Numerous early sources from as early as the third century support this tradition.
The 3rd-century Syrian work The Acts of Judas Thomas (Acta Thomae) records that the Apostle carried out his mission in India and was martyred on a hill in the kingdom of Mazdai. According to this account, a Syrian merchant named Khabin carried part of his relics to Edessa, where a church was later built in his honor. St. Ephrem of Edessa (4th century) corroborates this tradition through his hymns celebrating St. Thomas’s mission in India, his martyrdom, and the transfer of his relics to Edessa.
Additional references to the shrine and church of St. Thomas at Edessa appear in the Pilgrimage Diary of Egeria from the late 4th century. St. John Chrysostom also attests that the tomb of St. Thomas was as widely known as those of St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. John, though he does not specify its exact location.
Gregory of Tours (AD 594) mentions the monastery of St. Thomas in India, based on the testimony of a monk named Theodore who had personally visited it. In 841, the Muslim traveler Suleiman refers to Bethuma (“House of Thomas”), a site that he notes could be reached in ten days from Quilon.
Pseudo-Sophronius (7th century) appears to be the first to identify the place name Calamina as the site of St. Thomas’s martyrdom and burial. Isidore of Seville (AD 636) and later authors continued this tradition, affirming that Calamina was a city in India.
Ishoyahb, bishop of Saba (Nisibis) (AD 1187–1222), also confirms that the body of St. Thomas lies in India. His contemporary, Solomon, specifies the location as Mayluph, a city in the land of the Indians. Toward the end of the 13th century, the Venetian traveler Marco Polo recorded during his visit to India (AD 1293) that “in the province of Maabar, known as Greater India, near the gulf between Ceylon and the mainland, lies the body of Messer St. Thomas in a small town.”
The Arab Christian historian Amr Ibn Matte (AD 1340) writes that “Thomas’s tomb is on the island of Meilan in India, to the right of the altar in his monastery.” Later travelers such as John de Marignolli (1349), John of Montecorvino (1291), Oderic (1325), and Nicolo Conti (1440) all describe visiting the church of St. Thomas at Mylapur and witnessing his tomb.
In 1504, four East Syrian bishops who arrived in Kerala wrote to their Patriarch affirming that Mylapur was indeed “the house of the holy Apostle Thomas,” clearly identifying it as located “in the province of Silan, one of the provinces of India.”
By the time the Portuguese reached India in 1498, the St. Thomas Christians unanimously believed that the Apostle had been martyred and buried at Mylapur. Early Portuguese investigations from 1517 confirmed this account through interviews with local inhabitants, many of whom were non-Christians, who likewise held the belief that St. Thomas was buried there and that ancient Christian settlements surrounded the site.
Taken together, these diverse and consistent testimonies from across centuries form an unbroken tradition affirming the apostolate, martyrdom, and burial of St. Thomas the Apostle in India—particularly at Mylapur.
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