Devapriyaji - True History Analaysed

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11 THE MONUMENTS OF ST. THOMAS

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FOOT PRINT OF ST. THOMAS ON MATHA MALAI AT KAPPIYARA

Matha Malai

In between Thiruvithaankodu and Karungal six kilo meters west of Thiruvithaankodu at Kappiyara there is a hill called Matha Malai. St. Thomas during his stay in and around Thiruvithaankodu, chiefly when the construction of the Ezharaippalli was under way, The Apostle used to spend the night and the morning hours in a small hut on top of this hill. There on the top of a rock he would spend the morning hours meditating and reciting his divine office. On that spot two stones served him as a throne. Sitting on the one and resting the right foot on the other, he folded his left leg over the knee of the right leg. Thus seated he used to read, write and meditate for a long time even under the sun. Cool breeze from the sea of the west coast made this spot very pleasant to sit and meditate.

As St. Thomas was accustomed to sit on this rock, the foot print of his right leg has been imprinted on the rock. Rev. Thirumeni Varghese a priest of the Syro -Malabar Rite has traced out the details of this spot and a cave in which Our Lady appeared several times to St. Thomas. These details, he says, are found in the archives of the Latin Seminary in Thiruvanathapuram Arch Diocese where he studied. People around the locality have a great veneration to this sacred place. On every Good Friday the devotees climb on the hill praying the way of the cross and kissing the foot print of St. Thomas the Apostle to this day.

THE PILLAR OF ST. THOMAS AT KANYAKUMARI

By now the name and fame of the Apostle began to spread like wild fire all over the neighbouring countries. A group of people came from Cape Comerin (Kanyakumari) to invite the Saint to their country. Cape Comerin at that time was called Muttapathy and was situated at the present Chinna Muttam or Kumari Muttam. The present Cape Comerin at that time was an uninhabited hill, from which the sea was then half a league (about one kilo meter) distant.¹¹Muttapathy was well inhabited by a fishermen population. St. Thomas came to Muttapathy, began to preach the gospel and baptized all of them in front of the Cross he erected there, which can be seen even today. Then the Apostle built a church there. Doctor V. Lawrence writes: “Kanyakumari was not only the confluence of seas but also the meeting ground…..of early Christianity that was associated with St. Thomas,” and he admits that in Kottar also there were Christians who have remained as such from the time of St. Thomas. And he also speaks about the church of St. Thomas (Thoma Palli) at Kumari Muttam near Cape Comerin, quoting Diego Gonsalves who wrote the first ‘History’ of Malabar.¹²

Thus it was fulfilled in Muttapathy (Cape Comerin) in the first mission of St. Thomas what Herman D’Souza quotes as said in “The Doctrine of the Apostles”: “India and all its own countries and those bordering on it (Ceylon), even to the farthest sea (Indian Ocean), received the Apostles’ Hand of Priesthood from Judas Thomas, who was Guide and Ruler in the church which he built there and ministered there.”¹³

This church built by the Apostle was continually rebuilt and maintained by the subsequent missionaries. Duarte Barbosa who came to India around 1500 A.D. and remained there for sixteen years, wrote by the year 1517: “Near this Cape Comerin is an old church of Christians which was founded by Armenians, who still have it and celebrate Christian masses within it and have Cross on the altars.” There are two stone inscriptions , of which one contains the edict (A.D. 1494) of the local ruler authorizing that from the income collected from the fishermen, lights have to be kept burning in this church; and the other inscription was of the local king Muttampiranar, after whose name this place got the name “Muttam” or “Muttapathi.” ¹⁴

There is a tradition backed by the historians that on the top most part of the hill of Cape Comerin St. Thomas had erected a stone Pillar with a Cross on the top in full view of Ceylon (Sri Lanka). George Moraes writes: “There stood upon the rocks near the sea-shore, a stone pillar, which according to popular belief, had been erected by St. Thomas himself.”¹⁵ The historians are confused in the demarcation of the place of this Pillar of St. Thomas. Because there were three pillars, erected in different places, by different persons and in different periods. The first was erected in Cape Comerin by the Apostle St. Thomas about the year 35 A.D. The second one by John Marignoli at Covalam near Cape Comerin in the year 1348 A.D and the third one by the Portughese missionaries at Quilon in the year 1502 A.D. The confusion was also due to the naming of the places where these pillars were erected. For example the names like Covalam, Caulam, Caulan or Quilon. In the first century Cape Comerin and Covalam were one place with two hills and without any inhabitants.

Speaking of this pillar of St. Thomas, Fr. A. Monserrate in his letter to the General of the Society of Jesus, dated January 12, 1579 observes: “The Tradition is, and it is the common saying, that St. Thomas erected at Caulan (Covalam or Cape Comerin) a pillar (marco) on some stones, from which the sea was then about half a league distant, while saying (prophesying) that, when the sea should reach that pillar, white Christians would come, who would reduce them (instruct them) to following the law (religion) which he was preaching.”¹⁶

John Gilmary Shea writes: “Before he died in Meliapour, St. Thomas erected a very large cross and predicted to the people that when the sea would advance to the very foot of that cross, God would send them, from a far-distant land, white men who would preach to them the same doctrine he had taught them. This prophecy was fulfilled when the Portuguese arrived in the region, and found that the ocean had advanced so far as to be truly at the foot of the cross.” ¹⁷

Herman D’souza, getting the mistaken idea from authors like that of the above quoted materials, tries to locate this pillar at the city of Mylapore, but by giving the king’s name of the locality as Gandhappar Raja, he assures without his knowledge that the Pillar was erected within the territories of the Southern Pandian Kingdoms. He writes as follows: “There is a tradition that the sinking of Mylapore was prophesied by St. Thomas. He had been allowed by the local king, probably Kandappa Rajah, to build a church in the locality. ……On a certain occasion, the Apostle is believed to have said that when the sea should come near his Beth (abode), a western nation would come preaching the same doctrines as he himself taught.”¹⁸The locality of Gandhappar Raja definitely not being Mylapore but the province between Thiruchendur and Kanyakumari, it becomes certain that the Pillar of St. Thomas was erected not in Mylapore but in Kanyakumari.

Fr. Hosten says: “The same thing was said for St. Thomas at Mylapore though we have no allusion to the existence of such a pillar close to the church of the saint’s tomb.”¹⁹Fr. A. Monserrate thinks that this pillar was erected not in Mylapore but somewhere else, and that before the time of the arrival of the Portuguese. He says: “But I rather think that that Pillar is from before the time of the arrival of the Portuguese.”²⁰

In the above accounts, the location of the Pillar of St. Thomas is indicated as “upon the rocks near the sea-shore,” and “on some stones, from which the sea was then about half a league distant.” The present Rocks-Memorial at Cape Comerin might have been the sacred foundations of the hill, on which St. Thomas had erected his “Pillar-Memorial” of Christianity in the first century.

The hill, on the top of which the Pillar was erected, must have had, as its foundation, a solid mountain comprised of the three Sacred Rocks at the tri-sea spot of Cape Comerin: (1). The ‘Thiru Muzhukku Paarai” the rock of Divine Baptism or the present Sacred Snana Mandabam (Bathing spot) at the tip of Kumari Munai. (2). The “Thiru Thoon Paarai” the rock of the Sacred Pillar or the present Memorial of the Divine Poet. (3). The “Thiru Anai Paarai” the rock of the Sacred Shield or the present Memorial of the Sacred Philosopher (Saint Francis Xavier). These three rocks and stones around them were then under the hill when the sea was about half a league distant.

The names “Thiru Muzhukku Paarai,” “Thiru Thoon Paarai” and “Thiru Anai Paarai” were traditionally in use among the St. Thomas’ Christians in Cape Comerin. When the prophecy of St. Thomas was fulfilled at the beginning of the thirteenth century, the sea reached the vicinity of the pillar, and the rock first appeared was the Thiru Anai Parai, (the present Vivekananda Rock) which for a long time was shielding the pillar of St. Thomas from falling, and therefore was called the rock of the Sacred Shield. But finally, before the end of the thirteenth century, when the sea eroded the whole area as foretold by St. Thomas, the hill together with the Sacred Pillar disappeared into the sea.

In the fourteenth century White Christians came, in fact, and built a church of Our Lady of the Assumption in Cape Comerin at the spot where the church of the Roman Catholics now stands. The Franciscan Bishop John Marignoly visited this church twice and preached the gospel in 1339 before his visit to China, and in 1347 after he returned from China. Now Bishop Marignoli also erected a pillar in Cape Comerin. At his time the top most spot was a hill situated south east of Covalam near Cape Comerin. He intended this pillar to last till the end of the world. But it was also destroyed by the sea in the later part of the nineteenth century.

George Moraes writes: “This Franciscan (Bishop Marignolli) was endowed with a lovely imagination. Ceylon was not very far. It was the ‘Paradise’ where the Muslims pointed to the lake formed by the tears of Adam and Eve mourning for their son Abel. Before leaving for India, Marignolli had a pillar set up at Cape Comerin, the extremity of the Indian peninsula in full view of Ceylon. “More glorious than Alexander the great,” says he, when he set up his colomn (in India), “for I erected a stone as my landmark and memorial in the corner of the world over against the Paradise. In sooth, it was a marble pillar with a stone cross upon it, intended to last till the world’s end. And it had the pope’s arms and my own engraved upon it with inscriptions both in Indian and Latin characters. I consecrated and blessed it in the presence of an infinite multitude of people, and I was carried on the shoulders of the chiefs in a litter or palanquin like Solomon’s.”²¹

Details of the pillar of Bishop Marignoli are recorded by Fr. Hosten as different from that of the Quilon Pillar. “If this pillar had been a Padrao set up by the Portuguese, it would have been discovered in various places; for instance the arms of Portugal, or date. Now, the Quilon pillar has never been described as having anything distinctive. It is said that it disappeared only in the nineteenth century. Surely, the pillar was not the one erected by Friar John of Marignolli about 1347; his pillar was somewhere at or near Cape Comerin.”²²

Mudaliyar C.Rasanayagam also in his “Ancient Jaffna,” makes reference from “Cathay and the Way Thither,” written by Col. H. Yule, in 1348 or 1349 AD, that John de Marignolli, the papal delegate to the Court of the Great Khan, on his return from China, landed at Columbam. He remained with the Christians there for one year and four months, after erecting a stone memorial,“ in the corner of the world over against Paradise,” (supposed to be at Cape Comarin) he went to see the famous Queen of Saba, by whom he “was honorably treated” and then “proceeded to Seyllan (Ceylon). Source: BahamasWriter.comClick Here

Later this monument of Bishop Marignoli was attributed to St. Thomas by the local inhabitants. Baldaeus, a Dutch writer who reports this, has said that he saw this Pillar in 1662. As he says: “Upon the rocks near the sea shore of Caulam (Covalam), stands a stone pillar, erected there, as the inhabitants report, by St. Thomas. I saw the pillar in 1662. …….But It disappeared towards the close of the nineteenth century. And as Howard in his ‘Christians of St. Thomas and their liturgies’ says: “Mr. D’Albedhil told me that he has seen this pillar and that it was washed away only a few years ago” Quoted from Travancore Manual. ²³

In the sixteenth century the Portuguese and St. Francis Xavier came and built a beautiful church of Our Lady of Joy which we can still find behind the sacristy of the church of Our Lady of Ransom with its golden cross on top of the tower now in Cape Comerin.

THE STONE CROSS OF ST. THOMAS AT PANDARAKULAM

One of the available monuments of St. Thomas, erected during his mission in the southern Pandian Kingdom, is a famous stone cross with the inscription “I.N.R.I.” carved by his own hands in a style peculiar to St. Thomas himself.

The story of this cross as narrated by the inhabitants is that when St. Thomas founded a community of Christians at Pandarakulam near Vallioor, (See Ch. 6) the Saint as usual erected a stone cross there as an object of worship. And for a long time the Christians of St Thomas gathered in front of this Cross for their morning and evening prayers, and even for Holy Mass whenever some missionaries visited them. Then the people had built a “Kurusadi” holding the Cross on its top, with a small chapel attached for worship.

And when the present church was built, the Kurusadi was demolished, and the value of the Cross being unknown, it was discarded to a corner by the side of the church. But St. Thomas appeared to a pious man in dream and told that the Cross should be given a suitable place of veneration. It should be kept as a monument of his apostolic work in this place. Thus the Cross was recognized as a valuable treasure and a record for these people of having received the gospel of Christ in the very beginning of the Christian era. And therefore the Cross has been now kept, as you see in the picture, by the right side of the church, facing the main street of entrance in to the village.

Many miracles are attached to this Cross of St. Thomas. (These details were narrated to the author in a personal interview with one of the inhabitants Mrs. Marianthony Ammal 80 yrs. on May 23, 2004). Recently the local people have once again constructed a beautiful shrine in the same spot where the cross had been planted, namely by the right side of the church, facing the main street of entrance in to the village.

Ever since this shrine was built, the devotion of the Holy Cross is being celebrated on every First Friday of the month.

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1.AlexC.Muthiahibid.Pages139,140. 2. Ibid. Pages 50, 15, 16. 3. H. Sarkar, Research Article in the “Souvenir of the fourth Centenary Celebration of the Holy Cross church at Manappadu. 1581 - 1981. Cfr. Paragraph 3, 4. Herman D’Souza “In the Steps of St. Thomas” Pages 5, 6. 5. H. Sarkar Ibid Paragraph. 3, 14. 17; Foot Note 5. 6. H. Sarkar Ibid. Paragraph 14, 7. Professor George Menacherry Documentary Film, ICS Creation “Ezharappallikal” 8. George Moraes Ibid. Page 42, Foot Note 50. 9. A. M. Stanislaus “Thamizhar Arasu 3 (Cherar Arasu)” Pages 135, 10. “Padmanabhapuram palace is a 16th century marvel”

Source: kerala.bizhat.com/monuments/-17k-Cached - Similar pages

11. George Moraes Ibid. Page 210.

12. Dr. V. Lawrence Ibid. Pages 44, 46.

13 Herman D’Souza Ibid. Page 5

14. Dr. V. Lawrence Ibid. Page 46. 20.

15 George Moraes Ibid. page, 210

16. ibid.

17. John Gilmary Shea “Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints” Dec. 21

18. Herman D’Souza ibid. Page 42.

19. George Moraes Ibid. Page 210, Foot Note No. 15.

20 Ibid. Page 211. 21. Ibid. Page 105; V. Lawrence Ibid. Page 49; A.E. Medlycott ‘St. Thomas’ Christians’ Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. XIV Page 683 22. George Moraes Ibid. Page 211 Foot note No. 16. 23. ibid. Page 211, Foot Note No. 16.

-- Edited by admin on Wednesday 3rd of July 2019 06:35:44 PM