Ecclesiastical Chronicle, Volume 3

...cast him there and buried him. In the passage of time, they brought him to Edessa and placed him in the great church that was built in his name, just as Constans, son of Luke, testifies.

That Thomas, however, was from the tribe of Judah, and according to some, from Issachar. And formerly he was called Judas. Afterwards, however, he was called Thomas, from the name Thomas original: "ܬܐܳܘܡܳܐ" meaning "twin", because he was born as a twin with his other brother. First, however, he traveled in Palestine, and afterwards he was sent to India.

2. After Thomas the Apostle, Addai, one of the seventy proclaimers.

In the year thirty of the ascension of our Lord, which is the fifteenth of Tiberius Caesar, Addai came to Edessa...

Meilan (so, says Assemani, the Arabs call Maliapor) in India at the right of the altar in the monastery of the same. The Malabar History, brought out from the Leiden-Batavian manuscript by Land and produced by him in Syriac, agrees: "In the year 52 of our Lord Jesus Christ, Lord Thomas came to India and arrived at Mailapur (ܡܰܝܠܳܦܽܘܪ). Here he announced the Gospel to many, whom he made disciples and baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Then he set out and proceeded into Malabar where he arrived at Mokjokaren. He also preached to the inhabitants of this region, and there he erected an altar to the Lord, to which he added two presbyters. From there he went to Kutkujel, where he founded a church, which he did the same in Irapeli and Gukamaglam and Nernam and Tirubokut. Finally, he returned to Mailapur, where he was pierced by a lance by the unbelieving heathens." Land, Anecdota syriaca [Syriac Anecdotes], Leiden, 1862.

and buried him there. With the passage of time, it was brought to Edessa and there placed in the great church built under his invocation, just as the most excellent Constans, son of Luke, relates.

Thomas was from the tribe of Judah or, according to some, from the tribe of Issachar; formerly he was indeed called Judas, but then he was called Thomas, because he had been born a twin along with another brother of his. He had first lived in Palestine, afterwards he was sent to India.

2. After Thomas the apostle, Adæus, one of the seventy proclaimers.

In the year thirty from the ascension of the Lord, that is the fifteenth of Tiberius Caesar, Adæus came to Edessa, to which...

vol. I, 123. The same is handed down by G. H. Mill, Abraham, the presbyter of Travancore, in the Oxford manuscript in Payne Smith, Catal. codd. Syr. Bibl. Bodl. [Catalog of Syriac manuscripts of the Bodleian Library], p. 265. Assemani deals concerning the apostolate of St. Thomas in India, Dissert. de Syris Nestor. [Dissertation on the Nestorian Syrians] 4, 25 seq., Rauhu, Histor. eccles. Malabar. [Ecclesiastical History of Malabar], Rome, 1745, p. 5-7; 335-396.

1. In the Apocryphal Acts it is handed down that the relics of St. Thomas were brought from India to Edessa while King Mazdaeus, under whom Thomas had suffered, was still alive. But Barhebraeus, Sect. I, 66, asserts that the casket of St. Thomas was translated to Edessa under Bishop Eulogius (an. 387-398). See Chronicon Edessen. [Edessan Chronicle] in Assemani's Bibl. Orient., I, 399 and 403.

2. Although all our codices agree at this point, it must be admitted that an error in...