Thomas, who is also called Didymus, is interpreted “abyss” or “twin.” He was one of the twelve apostles.
According to Gregory, his doubt concerning Christ’s Resurrection benefited us more than Mary Magdalene’s immediate belief, for when he touched Christ’s wounds he cut the wound of future doubt from our minds.
He became a witness of Christ’s Resurrection not only through hearing and sight but also through touch. This appears in Cause 27, Question 7, Thus the Disciple.
He is therefore called “abyss” and “twin” because he confessed a twofold nature in Christ—his humanity and the abyss of his divinity—saying: “My Lord and my God.”
After Christ’s Ascension, while Thomas was preaching at Caesarea, the Lord appeared to him and said: “Thomas, Gandoforus, king of India, has sent to this city Abanes, his agent, to hire and bring him a man highly skilled in architecture to build him a palace in the Roman manner.”
Thomas finally answered: “You are my God and I am your servant. Let your will be done.”
The Lord went with Thomas through the marketplace and found Abanes. When the Lord asked where he came from and what he sought, he heard that at the king’s command Abanes sought an architect most skilled in building to bring back to his own region.
The Lord, whom I take to have been an angel in the form of the Lord, greatly commended Thomas, who was with him, as most learned in that craft.
This was no lie, for Thomas knew how to build spiritual palaces of virtues in human minds and also material buildings when necessary, being immediately taught by the Holy Spirit, who is the maker of all and possesses all knowledge.
Ibanes therefore took Thomas with him. Sailing, they came to a certain city in which a king was celebrating his daughter’s wedding.
When the king learned of Thomas’s holiness through miracles, he begged him to bless the bridegroom and bride. During the night Thomas entered their chamber through closed doors and exhorted them to preserve virginity, commending it greatly and saying: “Virginity is the sister of the angels, the possession of every good, the victory over lusts, the trophy of faith, the defeat of demons, and the security of eternal joys.”
Converted to the faith, they remained virgins. The bride, named Pelagia, received the sacred veil and suffered martyrdom; the bridegroom Dionysius was ordained bishop of that city.
It is also said that at the wedding banquet a man slapped the Apostle because he remained suspended in prayer without eating; that after leaving the house the man was strangled by a lion and torn apart by dogs; and that one of the dogs carried his right hand into the middle of the banquet. Augustine rejects this in his book against Faustus and says that it was inserted by heretics.
At length Abanes and the Apostle reached the city in which Gandoforus resided and visited the royal majesty. Abanes greatly commended the Apostle’s skill in building.
After the Apostle designed a marvelous palace and the king set out an abundant treasure for the purpose, the king departed for another province. The Apostle distributed that treasure to the poor. By applying himself to preaching, he built not merely one but many palaces in heaven during the two years in which the king was absent from the city.
When the king returned and heard what the Apostle had done, he thought himself mocked. He sent Thomas and Abanes to prison, intending to have them flayed alive and delivered to the flames.
Meanwhile Gad, the king’s brother, died, and his burial was prepared with excessive pomp. On the fourth day he rose from the dead. Although many fled, Gad said to his brother the king: “O king, this man whom you intended to deliver to the fire after imprisoning him is a friend of almighty God, and God’s angels serve him.
“When they led me into paradise, they showed me a palace built from gold, silver, and precious stones. As I admired its beauty, the angels said to me: ‘This is the palace that Thomas built for your brother. But because he made himself unworthy of it by imprisoning the Apostle, if you wish to have it, we shall ask the Lord to raise you so that you may buy it from your brother by returning to him the money that he thinks he has lost.’”
Running to the prison, Gad brought Thomas and Abanes out and sought pardon for the injury inflicted upon them by the king. He offered Thomas a precious garment.
Thomas refused it, saying: “Do you not know that a person who longs for a dwelling in heaven seeks nothing carnal or earthly on earth?”
When Thomas left the prison, the king also met him and sought pardon.
Thomas said to them: “God has bestowed much upon you by showing you his secrets. Believe in Christ so that you may become participants in the kingdom of God.”
The king’s raised brother said: “I saw the most beautiful palace that you built for my brother, but I have merited to buy it.”
The king answered: “Let the palace built for me remain mine. Let the Apostle make another for you; or, if he cannot, let it be common to us both.”
The Apostle said: “Innumerable palaces prepared in heaven from the beginning are bought by the price of faith and alms.”
The Apostle therefore caused the peoples of that province to be gathered and the sick with diverse illnesses to be brought and to remain apart.
When he prayed over them, an exceedingly great flash descended and so terrified them that they all fell to the ground as though dead.
The Apostle said: “Arise. My Lord descended like lightning and healed you.” They arose healthy, glorified God, and were converted to the faith. Thomas taught them to live well according to the twelve degrees of virtues, as appears in his legend, § I.
After this Thomas went into Upper India. Among other miracles, he gave sight to a blind woman named Sintice, a friend of Migdonia, the wife of Caritius, a kinsman of the king.
After hearing the Apostle’s teaching, Migdonia was converted to the faith and no longer wished to approach her husband’s bed because of his unbelief. Disturbed by this, Caritius sent Thomas to prison and arranged for the king’s wife, Migdonia’s sister, to approach her and recall her from her profession of faith. But the queen herself was converted through Migdonia.
[Running head: Sixth Title.]
The king was vehemently angered by this. On the advice of Charisius he had the Apostle cast into a burning furnace, but Thomas remained unharmed in its midst.
At last the king had him led to an image of the sun so that he might adore it. Bending his knees, the Apostle said in a clear voice: “Behold, I adore neither the idol, the metal, nor the image, but my Lord Jesus Christ. In his name I command you, demon who lurks within it: come out and shatter the image.”
When this occurred, the priests of the temple raised a great outcry over the destruction of their god. One of them took a sword or spear and pierced the Apostle through, saying: “I shall avenge the injury done to my god.”
Thus Thomas passed to the Lord and was honorably buried. After a certain time his body was translated from that place.
Isidore says in his book On the Birth and Death of the Saints: “Thomas the Apostle, who resembled the Savior, preached to the Parthians, Medes, Persians, and Bragmanis. Entering the eastern region and penetrating the interior territories of the nations, he carried his preaching as far as the goal of his mission and was pierced with spears.”
Chrysostom says of Thomas that, when he came to the land of the Magi, he instructed and baptized them. They afterward became helpers of the Christian faith.
The account that Thomas was not present at blessed Mary’s passing, that he afterward arrived and doubted the assumption of her body together with her soul, and that the Virgin Mary therefore appeared and gave him her girdle as testimony of this is apocryphal and not credible. Nevertheless, it may be believed with sufficient piety that her girdle is preserved on earth at the place called Prato, where it is shown to the people.