Thomas: Name Day and Patron Saint

St Thomas was a fisherman of Galilee who left everything to follow Christ and was numbered among the Twelve Apostles. He is best remembered for the days after the Resurrection. When the other disciples told him they had seen the Lord, Thomas would not believe until he could see and touch the wounds himself. On the eighth day Christ appeared again and showed him His hands and His side, and Thomas answered, “My Lord and my God.” For this reason the Orthodox icon of the scene is not called the doubting of Thomas but the Touching of Thomas, and his slow faith became a new witness to the Resurrection for all who came after him. Church Tradition holds that he carried the Gospel very far, founding churches in Palestine, Mesopotamia, Parthia, Ethiopia and India. In the Indian city of Meliapur he brought the wife and son of the city’s ruler to Christ; for this he was imprisoned and tortured, and at last he was pierced with five spears and went to the Lord as a martyr. Parts of his relics are venerated in India, in Hungary and on Mount Athos. The Church keeps his memory on 6 October (19 October on the Old Calendar), and he is also remembered on the Sunday after Pascha, Thomas Sunday. The faithful turn to him above all when faith is hard, asking his prayers that, like him, they may come to confess the risen Christ with their whole heart.

What the faithful pray for

• faith that holds firm in times of doubt
• those who struggle to believe
• a living encounter with the risen Christ
• missionaries and all who carry the Gospel to far lands
• the Christians of India