Saint Thomas

Thomas is the apostle who ended up with the worst reputation, and if you read the texts closely, it is unfair. The nickname that stuck to him comes from an episode only John tells: he wasn’t with the others when the risen Jesus appeared, and when they told him, he said that unless he put his finger in the wounds he would not believe. Eight days later Jesus returns and offers to let him do it, and Thomas touches nothing: he only says “My Lord and my God,” which is the highest profession of faith in the whole Gospel. But in the same Gospel there is another passage, and no one ever quotes it. When Jesus decides to go back to Judea, where shortly before they had tried to stone him, it is the others who hang back. It is Thomas who says: “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” The doubter was also the one ready to go. He was called Didymus, which means twin. Tradition sends him to preach beyond the Roman Empire, in Persia and in India, where he founded the first Christian community. The Christians of Kerala are still called Saint Thomas Christians and trace their Church back to him. His relics are in Ortona, in Abruzzo, brought from Chios in 1258. If your name is Thomas, today is your name day.