Apostle
Apostle Thomas
I век
Apostle Thomas, called the Twin (Didymus) — one of the Twelve closest disciples of Christ; he did not believe the account of Christ's Resurrection until he saw the Savior's wounds with his own eyes and touched them ("doubting Thomas"); according to tradition, he founded Christian Churches in Mesopotamia, Parthia, Ethiopia, and India, where he was martyred, pierced by five spears.
Apostle Thomas, nicknamed the Twin (Greek: Didymus), was one of the Twelve closest disciples of Christ. He is mentioned several times in the Gospel of John: ready to go to death with Christ ("let us also go, that we may die with him," John 11:16), and at the Last Supper asking the Lord about the way (John 14:5). Absent at Christ's first appearance to the apostles after the Resurrection, he did not believe their account, saying he would not believe "except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails... and thrust my hand into his side" (John 20:25). Eight days later the Lord appeared again to the disciples, and Thomas, seeing the Savior's wounds, exclaimed, "My Lord and my God!" (John 20:28) — the origin of the expression "doubting Thomas." After Pentecost, according to church tradition, Apostle Thomas founded Christian communities in Mesopotamia, Parthia, Ethiopia, and India. For converting the son and wife of the ruler of the Indian city of Meliapore to Christ, he was imprisoned, tortured, and pierced by five spears, being martyred. His main commemoration is kept on October 6/19; also on the Second Sunday after Pascha (Thomas Sunday, or Antipascha) and in the Synaxis of the Twelve Apostles on June 30/July 13.