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3 2
JARL CHARPENTIER
Pakalönmattam; of these the former one died out at an early
date while the second one survived into the 19th century and
supplied high ecclesiastical functionaries during the Portuguese
and Dutch periods. St. Thomas also is said to have founded
seven churches in Malabar and Travancore. The names of these
churches vary in different lists but there are always found
amongst them those of Cranganore, Quilon and Palür, perhaps
also those of Niranam and Chayil (Chayal). He also erected
crosses at various points in Malabar, and faithful souls have at
different times identified Syrian crosses -— some of them
carrying Pahlavi inscriptions — found here and there in that
country with those ascribed to St. Thomas.
After these signal successes the Apostle proceeded to
Co-romandel, the Eastern coast, where was the ancient realm of
the Chola kings with its capital at Conjeevaram. Here he also
made several conversions and founded a church at Mylapore1,
called by the Portugnese Säo Thomé and at present a suburb
of Madras. From there he is said to have extended his
missionary travels even as far as China.2 Later on he returned
to Mylapore and continued with great success his conversionary
labours. However, the Brahmins began to lose authority
because of the spread of the new faith. And the conversions
became still more numerous when the holy man performed a
great miracle. An enormous piece of timber was once found
landed near Mylapore, and the king wished to convert it into
materials for building a palace. However, all his men and
elephants were unable to drag it to the proper place. St.
Thomas who now arrived on the stage simply tied a rope round it
and pronouncing the name of our Lord he easily conveyed it
to where to build a church out of it.3
1 In reality Mayilapuram, a Tamil name meaning ’the Peacock-city’;
the correct explanation of the name was given already by De Barros
Decada III: 7, II (1563).
2 China in this connection would perhaps simply mean the countries
to the East of the Bay of Bengal.
3 According to another tradition St. Thomas had himself cut the
bulky timber in Ceylon during a visit to that island.
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