Thomas, Apostle, Saint

THOMAS, Apostle, Saint. - I. LIFE. - One of the "twelve," characterized by the epithet Didymus, which means "twin," a version (In Io. 11, 16; 20, 24; 21, 2) of the Aramaic name Thomas Hellenized (Θωμᾶς ὁ λεγόμενος Δίδωμος). Some wrongly interpret it as a synonym of "double" of soul.

Ancient writers indulged in fancies to try to determine whose twin Thomas was. Some (Chronicon Paschale, 9: PG 92, 1076) say he was the twin of a certain Lydia or Lysia; others of a certain Eliezer (Hom. Clem., 2, 1: PG 2, 77). The apocryphal Acts of Thomas (v. below), the Story of Abgar (cf. Eusebius, Hist. eccl., I, 6: PG 20, 126) and the Doctrine of the Apostles call him Judas-Thomas.

In the catalogues of the Apostles of the Synoptics (Mt. 10, 3; Mk. 3, 18; Lk. 6, 15) and of Acts 1, 13 only the name of Thomas appears. The Fourth Gospel recounts several episodes concerning him. One shows his courage: "Let us also go and die with him," Thomas said when it was a matter of going to Bethany, where Jesus was sought for death (Io. 11, 16). Another shows his reasoning character: "Lord, we do not know where you are going, how can we know the way?", he asked Jesus at the Last Supper (ibid. 15, 14). Very well known is his skepticism in the face of the statements of the other apostles, who had seen the risen Jesus (ibid. 20, 24-25), atoned for by his profession of faith in the human and divine reality of the Risen One, uttered eight days later: "My Lord and my God!". Jesus replied to him: "Because you have seen me you have believed: blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed" (ibid. 20, 26-29). Io. 21, 2 lists Thomas among the five who took part in the second miraculous catch of fish. Whence it follows that Thomas too was a fisherman.

Uncertain information about his field of apostolate comes from tradition. One relatively concordant current assigns him the eastern regions between Syria, Persia and India. The Roman Breviary commemorates him on Dec. 21 as a martyr at Calamina in India. The Greek and Syriac Churches celebrate him on Oct. 6, the Melkite Church on July 3, the anniversary of the translation of his relics to Edessa. The Christians of the Malabar rite boast of having been evangelized by Thomas the apostle, a matter still disputed by several.

Pietro De Ambroggi

II. CHRISTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY

One of the oldest scenes of the incredulity of St. Thomas is given by the sarcophagus of St. Celso in Milan, in which the Apostle places his finger on the side of the risen Lord (R. Garrucci, Storia dell'arte crist., II, Prato 1876-81, pl. 315, 5). Also in Milan, an ivory diptych is preserved in the Cathedral in which the apostle Thomas is represented in the same attitude (Venturi, I, p. 426, fig. 390). In London, in an ivory of the British Museum, the Lord, with a halo, standing on a raised platform, is surrounded by four disciples: the first on his left is Thomas, who extends his arm to touch the side of the Redeemer (O. M. Dalton, Catalogue of early christian antiquities, London 1901, pl. 6 d.). In the same museum there is a lead ampulla, found in Egypt but probably of Palestinian origin, in which the Lord is represented standing, with a halo, in the act of taking the arm of the apostle Thomas to make him touch the wound in his side; around it is written ὁ κύριός μου καὶ ὁ θεός μου, that is, the words "My Lord and my God" addressed by the Apostle to the Lord (Jn 20:29). The scene of the incredulity of St. Thomas closes the cycle of mosaic representations taken from the New Testament in the basilica of S. Martino in caelo aureo, today S. Apollinare nuovo in Ravenna (6th century). Also in Ravenna, A. Muratori proposed recognizing the scene of the incredulity in a marble bas-relief (La più antica rappresentazione dell'incredulità di s. T., in Nuovo bull. di arch. crist. 17 [1911], pp. 40-58).

Enrico Josi

III. ART

St. Thomas the Apostle was depicted in the Middle Ages with a square (regula), which initially is to be considered his usual iconographic attribute. He is presented thus in thirteenth-and fourteenth-century paintings and in various sculptures, including those north of the Alps, among which the most notable seems to be that of the Cathedral of Bamberg (13th century).

The art of the Italian Renaissance used to depict St. Thomas above all in the scene of his incredulity, presenting him in the act of putting his finger into the wound in Our Lord's side. The magnificent bronze by Andrea del Verrocchio, executed between 1464 and 1483 to adorn the tabernacle of the merchants' guild in Orsanmichele in Florence, is one of the first representations of this kind. The altarpiece by Cima da Conegliano, preserved in the Accademia in Venice, shows the scene of the incredulity of St. Thomas, which St. Magnus attends.

According to the testimony of the historian G. P. Bellori, an Incredulity of St. Thomas was painted around 1595 by Michelangelo da Caravaggio; the original of it has been lost; it is known, however, through seventeenth-century copies, one of which is preserved in the Berlin Museum and another in the Uffizi in Florence. The subject itself was often repeated by Caravaggesque painters, both Italian, for example by the Veronese Marcantonio Bassetti (Verona,

Museo di Castelvecchio), and Dutch and Flemish, for example P. W. Crabeth (Amsterdam Museum). A beautiful canvas by Guercino, from the Vatican Pinacoteca, also depicts this sacred subject.

For the art of the early eighteenth century, the statue of St. Thomas the Apostle carved in marble by Pietro Legros for the nave of the basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome is notable; there the Saint is seen showing his finger, a detail that alludes to the scene of his incredulity.

Witold Wehr

IV. APOCRYPHAL BOOKS

1. Apocalypse of T

An apocryphon, condemned by the decree of Gelasius (v.) under the title Revelatio quae appellatur Thomae Apostoli.

In 1907 F. Wilhelm believed he had rediscovered its text in an Epistola domini nostri Jesu Christi ad Thomam discipulum suum, in which are described the physical and moral disasters of the last seven days that will precede the cosmic catastrophe. The text, quite late, can be dated, according to E. Amann (in DBs, I, col. 529), to Merovingian times. In 1911 P. Bihlmeyer rediscovered a better-preserved, more ancient recension of it, which seems already to have been in use among the Priscillianists, published in Revue bénédictine, 28 (1911), pp. 270-82. A critical reconstruction translated into English was published by M. R. James, The apocryphal New Testament, Oxford 1924, pp. 555-62.

2. Acts of T

An apocryphal book, considered Encratite by St. Epiphanius (PG 41, 852), Manichaean by St. Augustine (PL 42, 452.758), Priscillianist by Turribius (PL 44, 694). The Acts of T. have come down to us in many manuscripts with Catholic reworkings, in two main recensions: one in Greek, the other in Syriac; the latter seems to be the original language. The Ethiopic reworkings are of lesser importance.

In the Greek recension the text is divided into 13 parts (plus one concerning the martyrdom of T.). Here is its subject matter: the Apostles in Jerusalem divide up the field of labor. Jude-T., also called Didymus, receives India as his lot. He does not want to go there. Jesus, appearing to him, repeats the command and sells him as a slave to a merchant sent by a king of India named Gundafor, who was looking for a skilled architect to build him a splendid palace. At a certain point in the journey, T. attends the wedding of the King's daughter and recites a hymn to the mystical union of the soul with eternal wisdom. Meanwhile Jesus, in the guise of T., persuades the newlyweds to maintain perfect continence in marriage. Later, presented to the King as an architect, T., entrusted with building a palace, distributes to widows and the poor the funds received for this purpose. The King, furious, is then calmed by a dream that shows him the palace built by the souls converted by T., and he himself has himself baptized. T. performs several miracles. Among other things, he frees the daughter of King Misdai from the demon and recommends perfect continence in marriage to all women. Imprisoned for this reason, T. miraculously escapes, but then, again miraculously, returns to prison, and ends up killed by spear thrusts. His body continues to work miracles.

Traces of Gnosticism are found especially in the poetic parts; it is difficult, however, to determine to which Gnostic system they belong. If the poetic parts are excluded, which, according to some, could be interpolations, the legendary account would turn out to be substantially orthodox and could contain some trace of reliable tradition. Some think that the book arose in Syria through the work of Bardesanes. Among the Latin reworkings, without the poetic parts, and therefore substantially orthodox, one notes the one attributed to St. Gregory of Tours: De miraculis b. Thomae Apostoli. There is also a Passio s. Thomae Apostoli from the 6th century. The Ethiopic reworking, derived from a Coptic reworking, takes many liberties.

Pietro De Ambroggi

3. Gospel of T

The oldest mention of a Gospel attributed to the apostle T. is found in Origen (Hom. in Lucam, I, 1: CB, IX, p. 5; cf. Eusebius, Hist. eccl., III, 25, 6: CB, II, 1, p. 252), and in Hippolytus (Philosophumena, V, 7, 20: CB, III, p. 83), who quotes a short verse from it and affirms that the work was widespread among the Naassene heretics.

St. Irenaeus (Adv. haer., I, 20, 1: PG 7, 653) seems to suppose its use by the Marcosians; while St. Cyril of Jerusalem (Catech. IV, 36: PG 33, 500) declares, together with the pseudo-Gelasian decree, that the work was of Manichaean origin. From such statements it is legitimate to conclude the existence in the 2nd century of a Gospel of T. of Gnostic origin. Of it we have with certainty only the saying reported by Hippolytus: "He who seeks me will find me among the children of 7 years and up; for hidden in the 14th aeon I will become manifest." What remains of the Gospel of T. is very probably a Catholic reworking, which nevertheless preserves evident traces of Gnosticism, in the apocryphon entitled in Greek Stories about the childhood of the Lord by T. the Israelite philosopher, in Latin Tractatus de pueritia Iesu secundum Thamam. Its diffusion is documented by the numerous versions (Syriac, Latin, Arabic, Slavonic). In Greek there exist two recensions: the long one, published for the first time from a codex of Bologna by G. L. Mingarelli in 1764, has 19 chapters and narrates the life of Jesus from age 5 to 12; the short one (13 chapters), taken from a Sinaitic codex, is limited to the years 5-9. The unknown author was neither a philosopher nor an Israelite; his knowledge of Jewish customs is very limited, while he shows a petty conception of religion. The account is a series of useless miracles of a child Jesus, vengeful and capricious. The hypothesis has also been aired that the substratum is of pagan origin, and precisely Indian (cf. A. Mayer, Kindheitserzählung des Thomas, in Ed. Hennecke, Neutestamentliche Apokryphen, 2nd ed., Tübingen 1924, p. 94 ff.).

For the text, with introductory notes, cf. C. Tischendorf, Evang. apocrypha, 2nd ed., Leipzig 1876, pp. 140-80; G. Bonaccorsi, Vangeli apocrifi, I, Florence 1948, pp. 110-51.

Angelo Pennz