Page 12 - Faith Connections Issue 2 (4)

ISSUE 2 JULY 2021

flowers that stayed suspended in the air. Most of

the Brahmins converted on the spot, while some
Dukhrana ran away out of fear.

By Maria George, Grade 9 He was martyred with a spear by Brahmins who

resisted the message of Christianity while praying
Dukhrana, celebrated on July 3rd, is one of the principal
on St. Thomas Mount in Mylapore near Chennai,
feasts of our Syro-Malabar Catholic faith. It is the day
Tamil Nadu in 72 A.D. His remains were removed
celebrating the martyrdom of St. Thomas the Apostle, our
from India in the 3rd century and sent to Edessa in
father in faith, and his triumphant entry into Heaven.
Mesopotamia, and were later relocated to their
current resting place in Ortona, Italy.
St. Thomas is commonly known for his doubt, but he was

a man of deep courage as well. When the apostles did not
Thus, the reason that the Feast of Dukhrana is so
want to go back to Judea with Jesus for fear of the Jews,
important to us is because it is the feast of the
Thomas said “let us also go, that we may die with Him.”
apostle who brought the message of Jesus to our
(John 11:16). It was this fortitude, a gift of the Holy Spirit,
ancestors, in order that they might be converted
that led St. Thomas to bravely proclaim the Gospel and to
and saved, and so pass that message on to us.
give his life for the Lord. Though Thomas doubted, he
made one of the greatest statements of faith in Jesus that
has ever been recorded in the Bible: “My Lord and my

God!”

St. Thomas landed on the Malabar coast in 52 A.D. in

Kodungallur. He established seven churches and their
communities in Kerala. These are in Kodungallur,
Palayoor, Kottakkavu, Kokkamangalam, Niranam,
Nilackal, Kollam, and Thiruvithamcode. He baptized many
families and preached to the Jews and Hindus of Southern

India, converting them to Christianity.

According to tradition, he made his first miracle in the

sight of some Brahmins in the village of Palur, where he
found them throwing water in the air as a part of their
Hindu rituals, trying to call on the sun god to accept it.
The water was never accepted, and it dropped back onto
the soil. St. Thomas also threw water in the air, calling on Joanna Ajesh

the name of Jesus, and it was transformed into sparkling
Kindergarten

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