Appendix 4
Ancient Church at St. Thomas Mount
The ancient Church on St. Thomas Mount had been a landmark to
mariners for more than four hundred years. In the l6th and 17th
centuries, when the Portuguese and the Armenian ships and vessels
in the Bay of Bengal sighted the church, the sailors offered their
thanksgiving prayers for their safe voyage and then saluted from
their artillery. The church on the hill has been in undisturbed
possession of the diocese of Myalapore for more than 400 years.
It later became the property of the Archdiocese of Madras-
Mylapore and since 2003 of the diocese of Chingleput.
The name of the hill before the arrival of the Portuguese is not
known. The Bishop of Cochin, Dom Frey Andre da Santa Maria,
in a record left in 1600, mentions that the Mount was called by
some “Monte de Nossa Senhora” (Mount of Our Lady) while
others called it “Monte Grande” (Great Mount) to differentiate it
from the other one, called “Little Mount”.
The vernacular name came in this Way. The hill was a grant to the
Church by the Kings of Bisnagar (Vijayanagar). Their imperial
language being Telugu, they called it “Fringy Condah”, Condah in
Telugu meaning hill. The is a reference to Fringy Condah in the
Mackenzie Manuscripts, now at the India Office in London. The
Tamilians called it Firingi Malai; ‘malai’ in Tamil means hill. We
have now to find the meaning of the word “Fringy” or “Firingy”.
Some historians have translated it as “Franks” while others as
“Europeans”. That the word is now taken to mean “Europeans”,
may be true, but it was not the original meaning of the word. The
famous Arab historian Zinadin in his “Historia dos Portugueses do
Malabar” offers the clue. He tells us that the Arabs called the
Portuguese by the name of “Frangues”; and this word became
Fringy and Firingi. Hence the name of the hill given by the imperial
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Court of Vijayanagar - “Fringy Condah” - probably in 1749 when
the village around was ceded to the East India Company.
The British however, when they transferred their Garrison to that
place called it “St.Thomas Mount”. And so it is known now. Many
Portuguese families had already settled at the foot of the hill from
1523.
Who built the Church?
Fr.Gaspar Coelho, Vicar of St.Thomas’ Church in Mylapore
recorded in 1543 that Diego Fernandes, a Portuguese, arrived in
Mylapore for the first time in 1517. And it was he who built on the
top of the hill in the year 1523 a small Oratory over the foundations
of a very ancient Church. The same Bishop mentions that already
at that time the place was famous as a centre of pilgrimage.
Thus we see that the Mount was famous and much frequented
already before the Portuguese commenced any religious activity
there. As the Oratory of Diego Fernandes (which was dedicated to
the Mother of God) was very small and the number of pilgrims was
increasing, Fr. Gaspar Coelho, Vicar of San Thome, thought it
necessary to build a bigger church. On the 23rd March 1547 the
foundations were dug and in the same year a church was built. This
Church was known as the Church of Our Lady of the Mount, and
soon it was called the Church of Our Lady of Expectation, the
titular feast being always celebrated on the 18th December. The
arch that separates the sanctuary from the body of the church
bears the title of the Church in Portuguese, “Senhora da
Expectacao”, “Our Lady of Expectation”.
The “Monte Grande”, or as we now call it “St. Thomas Mount”,
was from 1523 part and parcel of the Parish of San Thome. How
long did it continue under the long jurisdiction of the Vicar of San
Thome? We cannot give the year, but can definitely say that it must
have continued till at least 1561, for in this year Fr.Gaspar Coelho,
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as Vicar of the place got an interpretation of the inscription on the
Bleeding Cross on the Mount and sent it to the Bishop of Cochin,
who in the following year sent it to Portugal to Cardinal Dom
Henrique.
St.Thomas Mount became an independent parish some time after
1561. The Church of Our Lady of Expectation suffered much
damage during the invasion of Hyder Ali, and it was repaired twice
or even more. Fr.Manuel Barradas, S.J., writing in 1562 records
that Fr.Gasper Coelho, who discovered the Bleeding Cross of the
Mount and built the Church on the top of the hill in 1547, was buried
in this Church.
The Hill church has been the official Parish Church in the locality
for many years. However, from 1887 St. Patrick’s Church at the
foot of the Hill has been used as the Parish Church, being more
convenient for the growing population.
After St. Thomas Mount became part of the Archdiocese of
Madras-Mylapore, the dynamic Archbishop Louis Mathias
constructed a Calvary reminding the faithful of the fact that it was
this mount which was the Calvary of St. Thomas himself. And all
along the steps leading to the top of the hill, stations of the Cross
have been erected. Scores of pilgrims climb up to the hill daily as
they meditate and pray the traditional way of the Cross. It is a very
meaningful manner of visiting the place hallowed by the martyrdom
of the Apostle Thomas. And every year a diocesan way of the
Cross led by the Bishop himself in the afternoon of the Palm
Sunday attracts thousands of devotees from all over the city and
the suburbs. The memory of the death of the Apostle thus finds
ample expressions.
And we may also proudly state that the Pope John Paul II was
himself a pilgrim on St. Thomas Mount when he visited Chennai on
5th February 2004. And from the top of the hill, he blessed the large
concourse of people gathered all along its slope, thus bringing great
honour to the memory of the Apostle.
