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Image 1 of 1: St. Thomas the Apostle, El Greco

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St. Thomas the Apostle

Apostle

Thomas is best understood first as the apostle of the Gospel itself, not as a bundle of later legends. His love, slowness, honesty, and final confession are the fixed center.

Sources

The life below remains the existing Butler-based reading, with its edition citation. The profile preserves the feast date and source title already listed in the library. Additional personal dates and historical details are shown only when separately documented.

Traditionally patron of: The East Indies
The 1911 article uses the historical regional name East Indies. It does not define present-day national boundaries.

Butler sourceButler's Lives of the Saints, Volume IV (October-November-December), December 21, St Thomas, Apostle, Christian Classics 1990, pp. 589-591.

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1911)Henry Parkinson, Patron Saints, The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XI, Robert Appleton Company, 1911. Modern transcription of the original article.

Emblems of Saints (1860)Frederick Charles Husenbeth, Emblems of Saints, second edition, Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, London, 1860, p. 267, “Patrons of Arts, Trades, and Professions.”

The reading

ⓘ Butler source

Butler's Lives of the Saints, Volume IV (October-November-December), December 21, St Thomas, Apostle, Christian Classics 1990, pp. 589-591.

The apostle Thomas is best known first through the Gospel itself. Thomas is ardent enough to say, "Let us also go, that we may die with Him," honest enough to ask the question that draws from Christ the words, "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life," and memorable above all for moving from wounded unbelief to the great confession, "My Lord and my God."

The later missionary traditions also deserve attention, especially the persistent claim that Thomas preached in India. Those traditions are serious enough to recount at length, but must be treated cautiously, distinguishing the extravagant Acta Thomae from the harder historical question of how early Christianity took root among the Christians of St. Thomas on the Malabar Coast.

Historical note

This life gives full place to St. Thomas's Gospel witness and then treats the Indian missionary traditions with real caution, so this page keeps both pieces in that order.

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