St. Thomas Basilica

Did you know that one of the 12 Apostles of Christ, the one most people call Doubting Thomas, traveled to India in AD 52? South India has one of the oldest Christian populations in the world, though it's always been a tiny minority. I had never heard this interesting bit of Christian history before I moved here.

Thomas did most of his work in Kerala, our neighboring state, but was living in Mylapore (now a Chennai neighborhood) when he was killed by Brahmins. His followers buried him near the site of his murder, where there's been some kind of shrine for almost 2,000 years now.

Sarah and I spent an afternoon exploring the current shrine, St. Thomas Basilica (and here), built directly over St. Thomas' tomb, which you can visit by accessing a stairway that leads under the church.

Behind the church, there's a little museum with relics, art, and bits of the old Portuguese church that was removed when the basilica was built. The image of a peacock appears frequently in the artifacts, which is interesting because it's the Hindu symbol for the Mylapore area. The ancient Kapaleeshwarar Temple, not far from the basilica, is supposed to be the place where goddess Parvati worshipped Shiva in the form of a peacock.

Here are some pillars and a baptismal font from the old Portuguese church.

A copper relief showing St. Thomas performing a miracle ...

This supposedly contains some slivers of Thomas' bone.

Another relic, more bone from St. Thomas ...

And just to remind me that we're still in India, here's what we found around a corner from all the history and relics ... no explanation, of course. What?!

After seeing the museum and tomb, we did some exploring around the church.

That's a wooden vaulted ceiling ...

People have signed their names all over the case containing the statue of Christ.

Here's the front of the church.

Another interesting connection to the Hindu temples ... The flagpole at the church, which is wrapped in colored cloth during festivals, is exactly like the poles found in the larger temples (except for the cross on top, of course) and serves the same purpose.