Many roads lead to the One in southern India
Guy Liardet
March 24, 2007

Given the many Roman coins and Greek amphorae found in the region, it seems rather likely that St (“Doubting”) Thomas did in fact ride the steady monsoon wind to southern India some 15 years after the Crucifixion, founding several churches in Kerala state and meeting his end at spear-point while praying atop St Thomas Mount, in Madras.

If true, this is an important attestation of Jesus’s inspirational powers, for, with the exception of glimpses in Acts and Paul’s letters (notably the interestingly equivocal Galatians ii) the doings of the Twelve (or Eleven) rather disappear after AD 30.

Christianity flourishes in southern India. In Madras, St Mary’s, the oldest surviving British church, is faded Raj with memorials to long forgotten native regiments. But at the vermilion Sacred Heart, Pondicherry, the Tamil-speaking priest daily gives his capacity congregation a hard time. After the service, Bible-class children hand in their written work. The church of the Immaculate Conception is magnificent in white and gold. the rest