Beyond the Cathedral and the Kirk
In the Footsteps of the Apostle Thomas in India
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We are in the season of Lent, 40 weekdays and 4 Sundays, moving toward Easter, March 31st for most of us. Orthodox Christians celebrate it later on May 5. We are exploring global trends in spiritual and well-being tourism. I started with St. Andrew’s Church in south India, fondly called the “kirk” which means church. Built in 1821 for the Scottish Presbyterians, we discovered a south Indian congregation, 200 years later, celebrating the bicentenary shortly after COVID19.
Today’s story is about San Thome Church, officially San Thome Cathedral Basilica, at a spot by the beach that’s been drawing Christians for at least 2,000 years. The Apostle Thomas came here and was martyred in the first century after Jesus died.
There is not the slightest doubt but that the Indian Church, or at least a portion of it, is historically one of the most ancient Churches in the world… the tradition is that St. Thomas came and died a martyr at Mailapore near Madras…first told in great detail in the apocryphal Acts of Apostles, in which one chapter is devoted to the ‘Acts of St. Thomas.’ Rajaiah D. Paul, The Cross over India.
There are only three basilicas in the world built over the tomb of an apostle. Two of them are in Europe, St. Peters Basilica in Rome, Italy, and Church of St.James the great in Santiago de Compostela, Spain (more on this multiple routes, increasingly popular well-being trek, in the spring). San Thome Cathedral, in the city of Chennai, formerly Madras, south India, is the third, on the Pacific coast.