St Thomas the Apostle: Life, Death, Feast and Prayer

St Thomas the Apostle, called Didymus, "the twin", is one of the Twelve chosen by our Lord, remembered for doubting the Resurrection and then confessing the risen Christ with the words "My Lord and my God". An ancient tradition makes him the apostle of India, where the Christians of the Malabar coast still call themselves the Christians of St Thomas. In the Roman calendar of 1962 his feast falls on 21 December, a feast of the second class; here is what the Gospels tell of him, what tradition adds, how he died, and the full prayers of his Mass in Latin and English. (He is not to be confused with the Dominican Doctor of the thirteenth century, St Thomas Aquinas.)

Who was St Thomas the Apostle?

Thomas was a Jew, probably a Galilean of humble birth; the Gospels do not say that he was a fisherman, nor how our Lord called him. He appears in every list of the Twelve: "Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the publican" (St Matthew x. 3). His name is Aramaic (Syriac) and means "twin"; Didymus, as St John also calls him, is the Greek for the same word. Who his twin was, Scripture does not say.

St John's Gospel gives us three scenes that show his character.

"Let us also go, that we may die with him." When Jesus resolved to go back towards Jerusalem to raise Lazarus, though the Jews had just tried to stone Him there, the other disciples tried to hold Him back. Thomas said: "Let us also go, that we may die with him" (St John xi. 16). His love for his Master was ready for death.

"How can we know the way?" At the Last Supper, when our Lord said, "Whither I go you know: and the way you know", it was Thomas who answered: "Lord, we know not whither thou goest. And how can we know the way?" His frank question drew from Christ the words that contain the whole faith: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by me" (St John xiv. 4-6).

"My Lord and my God." After the Resurrection he was not with the others when the Lord appeared to them, and he refused to believe their report: "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the place of the nails and put my hand into his side, I will not believe." Eight days later, the doors being shut, Jesus stood in their midst and said to him: "Put in thy finger hither and see my hands. And bring hither thy hand and put it into my side. And be not faithless, but believing." Thomas answered: "My Lord and my God." And Jesus said: "Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen and have believed" (St John xx. 24-29).

He is named once more among the seven disciples to whom the risen Lord showed Himself at the Sea of Tiberias (St John xxi. 2), and with the Eleven in the upper room before Pentecost (Acts i. 13). That is all the New Testament tells of him.

Was St Thomas the Apostle "doubting Thomas"?

Yes, and the Church has never hidden it: the Gospel of his doubt is the Gospel of his feast. But the Fathers saw in his doubt a providence for us. St Gregory the Great, in the homily that the Breviary reads at Matins of his feast, says that the unbelief of Thomas has profited our faith more than the faith of the disciples who believed: by touching the wounds he was brought back to faith, and our minds are strengthened against all doubt. And the doubter made one of the clearest confessions of the divinity of Christ in all the Gospels. He did not say only "my Lord", but "my God".

Catholic piety has made his words its own: many of the faithful say them silently while looking at the Sacred Host at the elevation at Mass:

At the elevation of the Host, looking at the Blessed Sacrament

Dominus meus et Deus meus!

My Lord and my God!

What did St Thomas the Apostle do in India?

After Pentecost the Apostles went out to the nations, and here we leave the Gospels for traditions of very unequal worth, which Butler sifts carefully.

Parthia and Persia. Eusebius, the historian of the early Church, assigns to Thomas the Parthians, and says that he sent St Thaddeus to Edessa to baptize its king. The Roman Martyrology combines the traditions: Thomas preached to the Parthians, Medes, Persians and Hyrcanians, passed into India, and was martyred there at a place it calls Calamina, which nobody has been able to identify.

The Acts of Thomas. A third-century writing, the Acts of Thomas, tells how the Apostles divided the world among them and India fell to Thomas, who did not want to go; how Christ sold him as a slave to a merchant of King Gundafor; how, having told the king he was "a carpenter and builder", he was given money to build a palace and gave it all to the poor, telling the king that his palace was being built in heaven; how the king was converted; and how Thomas was at last put to death by soldiers on the orders of another king, Mazdai.

These Acts are apocryphal: they were denounced in the early Church by St Epiphanius, St Augustine and Pope St Innocent I, and Butler holds that no germ of history can be found in them, though there really was a king named Gondophernes ruling in north-western India about the year 46.

The Christians of St Thomas. At the other end of India, on the Malabar coast, there have been Christians since very early times, using a liturgy in Syriac that came from Mesopotamia and Persia. They have always called themselves "the Christians of St Thomas" and keep an ancient tradition that he landed at Cranganore, founded seven churches in Malabar, then crossed to the Coromandel coast, where he was martyred and buried at Mylapore, near Madras. Medieval writers mention his tomb in India, and in 1522 the Portuguese found the tomb said to be his at Mylapore. Whether the Apostle himself evangelized South India, or whether a later mission from Edessa came to be joined to his name, cannot be settled by documents; the tradition is ancient, constant and dear to a whole Church.

How did St Thomas the Apostle die?

By the tradition of the Church he died a martyr. The Acts of Thomas say that soldiers led him to the top of a hill and struck him all together with their spears on the orders of King Mazdai; the tradition of Malabar says that he was pierced with a spear on a hill near Madras, in the year 72. The spear became his emblem in art. For the martyrdom of the other Apostles, see how did the apostles die.

Where is St Thomas the Apostle buried?

His relics were certainly at Edessa, in Mesopotamia, in the fourth century; the Acts of Thomas say they had been brought there from India. They were later translated to the island of Chios in the Aegean, and from there to Ortona, in the Abruzzi, on the Adriatic coast of Italy, where they are still venerated in the cathedral of St Thomas. Some small relics are kept at the cathedral of St Thomas at Mylapore, in Chennai (Madras), over the tomb discovered in 1522. No incorrupt body is claimed.

What is St Thomas the Apostle the patron saint of?

Because of the story of the palace, Thomas, the "carpenter and builder" of the apocryphal Acts, is commonly invoked as patron of architects and builders, a patronage that rests on that legend alone; in art he often carries a carpenter's square, or the spear of his martyrdom. He is also honoured as the apostle of India, by the Christians of St Thomas above all. And as the apostle whose doubt was healed by Christ's own wounds, he is a good patron to ask for those who struggle to believe.

The prayer of St Thomas the Apostle (Missal of 1962)

His Mass, Mihi autem nimis honorati sunt amici tui, Deus, has the Gloria, the Creed and the Preface of the Apostles; the Epistle tells the Ephesians that they are "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets" (Ephesians ii. 19-22), and the Gospel is that of his doubt and his confession (St John xx. 24-29).

Collect, 21 December

Da nobis, quaesumus, Domine, beati Apostoli tui Thomae sollemnitatibus gloriari: ut ejus semper et patrociniis sublevemur; et fidem congrua devotione sectemur. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.

Grant us, we beseech Thee, O Lord, to rejoice in the solemnity of Thy blessed Apostle Thomas: that we may ever be upheld by his patronage and follow his faith with fitting devotion. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.

Secret

Debitum tibi, Domine, nostrae reddimus servitutis, suppliciter exorantes: ut, suffragiis beati Thomae Apostoli, in nobis tua munera tuearis, cujus honoranda confessione laudis tibi hostias immolamus. Per Dominum nostrum.

We render Thee, O Lord, the service that we owe, humbly beseeching Thee that, by the prayers of blessed Thomas the Apostle, Thou wouldst guard Thy gifts in us, as we offer Thee the sacrifice of praise for his confession, worthy of all honour. Through our Lord.

Postcommunion

Adesto nobis, misericors Deus: et, intercedente pro nobis beato Thoma Apostolo, tua circa nos propitiatus dona custodi. Per Dominum nostrum.

Be near us, O merciful God, and by the intercession of blessed Thomas Thy Apostle, mercifully keep Thy gifts within us. Through our Lord.

The Collect asks exactly what the apostle's story teaches: to be upheld by his patronage and to follow his faith, the faith he confessed at the wounds of Christ.

When is the feast day of St Thomas the Apostle?

In the Roman calendar of 1962 the feast of St Thomas falls on 21 December, a feast of the second class, in red vestments. It falls in the last days of Advent, in the week of the O Antiphons (the antiphon of 21 December is O Oriens, "O Dayspring") and of the Christmas novena, close to the winter solstice and the longest night of the year: the apostle who came to faith by touching the risen Body is kept as the Church waits for the Word made flesh. You will find the day in our traditional Catholic calendar of 1962.

In the calendar of 1969 his feast was moved to 3 July, the date on which the old martyrologies record the translation of his relics to Edessa, and on which the Syrian Churches, Malabar included, keep his principal feast. The 1962 books, which we follow, keep 21 December. Earlier in Advent the Church keeps another apostle, St Andrew, on 30 November. All the saints of the year are gathered in our guide to the Catholic saints, listed by feast day.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was St Thomas the Apostle?

One of the Twelve Apostles, called Didymus ("the twin"), a Jew probably from Galilee. He is known from St John's Gospel for his readiness to die with Christ, his question at the Last Supper, his doubt of the Resurrection and his confession "My Lord and my God".

What is St Thomas the Apostle known for?

For his doubt and his confession of the risen Christ, which earned him the name "doubting Thomas"; and, by tradition, for carrying the Gospel to Parthia and India.

How was St Thomas the Apostle martyred, and who killed him?

By tradition he was killed with spears: according to the Acts of Thomas, by soldiers acting on the orders of an Indian king named Mazdai; according to the tradition of Malabar, on a hill near Madras.

When and where was St Thomas the Apostle born?

Neither the date nor the place is known. He was a Jew, probably a Galilean.

Was St Thomas the Apostle married?

Scripture says nothing about it, and no reliable tradition does either.

Was St Thomas the Apostle a carpenter?

Not according to the Gospels, which say nothing of his trade. The Acts of Thomas, an apocryphal writing of the third century, have him say to an Indian king that he is "a carpenter and builder", and that legend is why he is invoked as patron of architects and builders.

When was St Thomas the Apostle canonized?

Never by a formal process, which did not exist in the early Church: as one of the Twelve he has been venerated as a saint from the beginning and is named in the Canon of the Mass.

Is St Thomas the Apostle incorruptible?

No incorrupt body is claimed. His relics are venerated at Ortona in Italy, and some smaller relics at Mylapore in India.

The Iter Fidei app carries the Roman Missal of 1962 with the Mass of St Thomas, the Breviary, and the traditional calendar in Latin and English. Join early access here.

Sources. Holy Bible, Douay-Rheims version, St Matthew x. 3; St John xi. 16, xiv. 4-6, xx. 24-29, xxi. 2; Acts i. 13; Ephesians ii. 19-22. Alban Butler, Lives of the Saints, 21 December (St Thomas, Apostle). Roman Missal (1962), Proper of Saints, 21 December. Roman Breviary, 21 December, Matins (homily of St Gregory the Great).