The seven churches founded by St. Thomas

Since Muziris, the present day Kodungallur, was a harbor well known all over the ancient world, there is every possibility that St. Thomas should have decided to visit the Malabar coast. There was a regular traffic between the ancient near eastern countries and Muziris, especially after a Roman merchant called Hippalus discovered in 47 A. D. the sailing monsoon winds, which have ever since come to be known as the Hippalus winds, by which the sailors could cross over the Arabian sea to the Malabar coast in a matter of weeks, instead of months, along the costal line. The tradition is that St. Thomas landed in Kodungallur/Muziris in the year 52 A.D. He must have found a great number of Jews in Kerala, to whom in the first place he must have preached the Gospel. In all narratives about the apostolate of Thomas in Kerala, Kodungallur is mentioned as the first of the seven churches/Christian communities founded by him. Kodungallur, Palayur, Kottakkavu(Parur), Kokkamangalam(near Shertallai), Niranam, Quilon and Nilakkal (Chayal) are the seven churches reckoned to be founded by St. Thomas.

Mylapore- Edessa- Ortona- Kodungallur

There is an amazing amount of ancient narratives and testimonies about the preaching of St. Thomas in India and about his martyrdom at Mylapore, near Madras. St. Ephrem who lived 300-365 A. D in Edessa, in the present day Turkey, witnesses to the universality of an early tradition, both in the East and the West, about the apostolate of St. Thomas in India and his martyrdom at Mylapore. Here is one of his many testimonies: “That Noble merchant, O Thomas, who travelled to India and came back several times, deemed all the precious things he found there as but dirt in comparison to your sacred bones which he brought over (to Edessa)”.

In the 7th century the Middle East fell to the Muslim powers and the position of the Christians became insecure. Thus according to reliable tradition, the bones of St. Thomas are said to have been taken by Christians to Chios, a small island near Greece, and from there to Ortona in Italy on 17 June, 1258.

On the auspicious occasion of the 19th century celebrations of the Solemn Entrance of St. Thomas to India, the Holy See thought to offer a befitting gift to St. Thomas Christians in Kerala. As a realization of this great decision, late Cardinal Tisserant, then the Prefect of Oriental Congregation, on his historic visit to Kerala took the bone of the Right Arm of the Apostle and deposited it in the shrine built for that purpose at the present site of the Marthoma Nagar, Azhicode on December 6, 1953. Thus the place where St. Thomas landed in India has become the most sacred shrine of Mar Thoma in Kerala, where thousands throng to receive the blessings of that Hand which touched the wounds of the Risen Lord.

The Shrine was entrusted by the Holy See to the Devamatha province of CMI-Fathers who have an ashram here and attend to the needs of pilgrims.

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