St. Thomas the Apostle

The Ethiopian Orthodox  Tewahido church celebrates his martyrdom on Ginbot 26 (June 3). In addition, the Tuesday after Easter is dedicated to him as the Tuesday of Thomas, in remembrance of St. Thomas’ doubting question to Jesus. St. Thomas is absent from the Upper Room the first time Jesus appeared to the disciples after His Resurrection. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord!’  But St. Thomas dismissed their claim saying, ‘Unless I see the nail marks in His hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” (Luke 20:25). 

A week later the disciples were in the house again, and St. Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’ Then He told Thomas to examine the Marks on His hands and  said, ‘Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.’" Then, Thomas fell at the feet of Jesus and said, “My Lord and my God!” and Jesus replied, “Because you have seen me, Thomas, you believed. Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet believe” (John 20:25-29). This incident gave rise to the expression “doubting Thomas.”

Thomas’ devotion to Jesus is indicated in the Gospel of John 11:5–16 and in his action when Jesus was to return to Judaea.  The disciples warned Him of the Jews’ animosity (“now seeking to stone you”), to which St. Thomas replied, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.” At the Last Supper (John 14:1–7) St. Thomas could not comprehend what Jesus meant when He said: “I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way where I am going.” St.Thomas’ question, “how can we know the way?” caused Jesus to answer, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”

Some of the apostolic missions of St Thomas that recorded in the Ethiopic Synaxarium are summarized as follows:  St. Thomas went to his apostolic diocese, India and Kantara to preach the Gospel and made many more miracles there. He worked there as a slave at one of the governors of the king, whose name was Lukios, who brought him to the king who inquired about his profession. Thomas said: "I am builder, carpenter and a physician. Then the governor set out to go to the king, and he left St Thomas to build in the house. Contrary to the order of the king, St Thomas preached the gospel of Christ in his master’s palace, and Lukios’ wife believed and all his household. 

Later on, the king asked him about his achievements, and St. Thomas answered: "The palaces that I built were the souls that have become the temples of the King of Glory; the carpentry that I did was the Gospel that removes the thorns of sin; and the medicines I practiced are the Holy Mysteries which heal the poison of the evil one. The king became angry and tortured him, and bound him among four poles, cut off his skin and rubbed his wounds with salt and lime. St. Thomas endured the pains. 

Lukios’ wife saw him suffering, and she fell from the window and died. Lukios came to him and said: "If you raise my wife from the dead, I believe in your God." St. Thomas went to the room where the dead body was, and said: “O, Arsonia, rise up in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ." She rose instantly and bowed to the Saint. When her husband saw that, he believed and many more with him from the people of the city, and St. Thomas baptized them. 

St. Thomas left and went to a city called Kontaria, where he found an old man weeping bitterly because the king killed his three children (other Ethiopic and Coptic sources said six children). The Saint prayed over them, and the Lord raised them up. The idolatry priests were angry, and wanted to stone him. The first one picked up a stone to throw it at him, but his hand became paralyzed. The Saint prayed over his hand, he was healed instantly, and all the idolatry priests believed in the Lord Christ. 

St. Thomas also went to the cities of Kenas, and Makedonya, and preached to the men therein in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. He also baptized the wife of the king and all her household. When the kings heard about him, he was exceedingly angry and commanded four of his soldiers to kill him with their spears so as to erase him from public memory. They stabbed him with spear repeatedly until he died (in 72 AD). The men of the city including the king’s son came to deliver St. Thomas from the hands of the soldiers, but they found that his soul had already departed. Then they wrapped up his body and laid it on one of the royal tombs.  The Coptic Synaxarium recorded that, he was buried in "Melibar", then his body was relocated to El-Raha.

According to church tradition, St. Thomas was also the only witness of the Assumption of Mary into heaven. Thomas the Apostle was not present at the time of St. Mary’s departure. He was on duty in his apostolic diocese of India. As he went back to Jerusalem carried on a cloud St. Mary appeared to him while she was ascending to witness her body’s Assumption into heaven, from which she dropped her girdle. In an inversion of the story of Thomas’ doubts, the other apostles are skeptical of St. Thomas’ story until they see the empty tomb and the girdle. Today, priests attach a piece of vestment in their crosses to remember St. Thomas’ receipt of the girdle from the Ascended Virgin Mary. 

  Glory be to God who is glorified by His saints!!

Sources: 
• Ethiopic Synaxarium, on 3 June.
• Coptic Orthodox Church Network (http://www.copticchurch.net/synaxarium/9_26.html)
•Wikipedia, the free encyclo.,(https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_the_Apostle#Feast_days).