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How Tsunami Waves Did Not Touch Santhome Cathedral
The Indian Catholic ^ | January 10, 2005

Posted on 01/10/2005 12:36:47 PM PST by It's me

CHENNAI (ICNS) – The tsunami waves have subsided, but a miracle is being talked about across Chennai. It is the story of how St Thomas’ miraculous post kept the invading waves away, sparing the newly renovated Santhome Cathedral.

The Cathedral, the world’s second basilica built on an apostle’s tomb, has been giving shelter to hundreds of tsunami victims ever since the waves ravaged many buildings across the coast.

But even though the killer tsunami waves devastated the Chennai coast, Father Lawrence Raj, the parish priest of the Santhome Cathedral Basilica, says “the sea did not touch our church.”

The reason? “We believe the miraculous post of St Thomas prevented the sea waters from entering the church,” says Father Raj.

The church that sits at the site where St. Thomas, one of the 12 Apostles of Jesus Christ, was buried after his death in the year 72 is located a few metres from the sea. While all the buildings on either side of the church were hit by the tsunami waves, the Santhome Cathedral remained unaffected.

Local people now say it is the St Thomas’ miraculous post that has kept the sea away on December 26.

According to Father Raj, the legend is that when St Thomas planted the post at the top of the steps leading to the Cathedral, he said the sea would not pass that point.

The priest saw from the terrace of church the angry sea in action, as it surged across the road and flooded the huts in front of St Thomas’ post, which is an innocuous looking log of wood, mounted on a cement pedestal.

The belief goes that a village in the Mylapore area was flooded when a huge tree trunk fell across the river. The local king brought a royal pachyderm to lug it away, but the task seemed impossible.

Then, according to legend, St Thomas came along, removed the girdle from his waist and handed it to a bystander and asked him to yank the log with it. He did so and the log was moved easily.

A mural in the Cathedral museum illustrates this incident. Father Raj says the current post is believed to be from that same log of wood.

Hundreds of homeless survivors who have been staying in the church ever since the tragedy hit them have prayed to St Thomas for saving them.

“It is St Thomas who has saved me. This church was untouched by the waters because of the miraculous power of the St Thomas post,” said K Sebastiraj, a fisherman who sought shelter in the Santhome Cathedral.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: basilica; cathedral; india; miracle; saved; stthomas; sumatraquake; tsunami; wrongforum
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To: bert

Yeah, like they anticipated this once in a eon event! If so, they were truly inspired.


101 posted on 01/10/2005 7:03:20 PM PST by RobbyS (JMJ)
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To: NerdDad

The sea receded, did it not?


102 posted on 01/10/2005 7:04:50 PM PST by RobbyS (JMJ)
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To: geopyg

In the Bible it is recorded that Jesus ince referred to the collpase of a tower in Jerusalem, a disaster that killed many people. He did not attempt to explain it, only to point out that these people did not die because of their sins or the sins of their relatives.


103 posted on 01/10/2005 7:07:59 PM PST by RobbyS (JMJ)
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To: aMorePerfectUnion

II Timothy 2:15 - "Be eager to present yourself as acceptable to God, a workman who causes no disgrace, imparting the word of truth without deviation." NAB

Ok- ampu, you've got me here. I do not see how your reference to this verse answers my question at all. I'm just not sure I understand what you are getting at.


104 posted on 01/10/2005 7:23:50 PM PST by Ohioan from Florida (The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.- Edmund Burke)
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To: Thorin
"Your notion of Christianity is a peculiar one indeed: apparently Jesus' "true ideas" had no power to last much beyong his lifetime, and indeed were largely lost to history"

Jesus' "idea" had all the power to last his lifetime (eternity) and ours. Jesus didn't need the help of all that stuff, none of it is His "true idea." His true idea was....Mar 15:38 And the veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom. No more kissing the ring of pharasies or popes. The truth is there for all to read right there in the word - isn't that cool? peace

105 posted on 01/10/2005 7:37:18 PM PST by patriot_wes
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To: Rebelbase

St. Thomas travelled to India after he set up the Church between Nineveh and Babylon which is today's Iraq. The descendents of St. Thomas work in Iraq trace themselves to St. Thomas and to his disciples St. Thaddeus (Addai) and St. Mari. They are known today as the Chaldeans/Assyrians -- Aramaic in culture and language.


106 posted on 01/10/2005 7:42:40 PM PST by Siobhan (Our Lady, Guardian of Plants, pray for us. St. Thomas the Apostle, pray for us.)
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To: ImphClinton
The Crusaders proved once and for all the fallacy of the Catholic Religion. It is not the church Christ created. That church died with John.

It's always nice to make the acquaintance of yet another backwards ass bigoted ignoramus here on Free Republic.

107 posted on 01/10/2005 7:42:51 PM PST by Barnacle (9.0 earthquake. Tsunami kills thousands. What did Bush know? And, when did he know it?)
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To: Orbiter
Look deeply into your heart and explore where words like this are birthed.

My heart is a muscle. It pumps blood.

108 posted on 01/10/2005 8:37:01 PM PST by AdamSelene235 (Truth has become so rare and precious she is always attended to by a bodyguard of lies.)
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To: It's me

Inspiring story.


109 posted on 01/10/2005 9:08:45 PM PST by Ciexyz (I use the term Blue Cities, not Blue States. PA is red except for Philly, Pgh & Erie)
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To: mo

"In Ephesus, Turkey are the ruins of the Basilica of St. John the Divine, built atop his tomb..."

St. Peter, St. Thomas, St. John, St. Paul...Any others?


110 posted on 01/10/2005 9:09:35 PM PST by bowzer313
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To: murphE

As far as I know, yes. At least in India.


111 posted on 01/10/2005 9:41:03 PM PST by It's me
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To: It's me

cool.


112 posted on 01/10/2005 9:57:54 PM PST by murphE ("I ain't no physicist, but I know what matters." - Popeye)
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To: It's me

Whats the point if so many people die and a lifeless brick walled structure survives. No matter how much of a miracle it may seem to appear this is no good news for me.


113 posted on 01/10/2005 11:14:12 PM PST by Gengis Khan
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To: It's me

I dont care about churches, temples or mosques. It would have been an even bigger miracle had the people survived somehow(lets say... by taking shelter inside the church). I however do not see any god's glory in having so many people killed and a lifeless structure left standing.


114 posted on 01/10/2005 11:21:53 PM PST by Gengis Khan
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To: ImphClinton

Wow, #5, didn't take long for the anti-Catholic rant to begin this time.....


115 posted on 01/10/2005 11:26:38 PM PST by SAMS
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To: ImphClinton
The Crusaders proved once and for all the fallacy of the Catholic Religion.

Because they eventually lost?

116 posted on 01/10/2005 11:31:59 PM PST by sphinx
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To: ImphClinton
That church died with John.

Thank you for your infallible teaching.

117 posted on 01/11/2005 5:13:47 AM PST by Aquinasfan (Isaiah 22:22, Rev 3:7, Mat 16:19)
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To: It's me

Re: #30. Great photo.


118 posted on 01/11/2005 5:16:21 AM PST by Aquinasfan (Isaiah 22:22, Rev 3:7, Mat 16:19)
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To: Rebelbase
Very interesting. I had no idea any of he Apostles traveled as far as India.

St. Thomas the Apostle

Little is recorded of St. Thomas the Apostle, nevertheless thanks to the fourth Gospel his personality is clearer to us than that of some others of the Twelve. His name occurs in all the lists of the Synoptists (Matthew 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6, cf. Acts 1:13), but in St. John he plays a distinctive part. First, when Jesus announced His intention of returning to Judea to visit Lazarus, "Thomas" who is called Didymus [the twin], said to his fellow disciples: "Let us also go, that we may die with him" (John 11:16). Again it was St. Thomas who during the discourse before the Last Supper raised an objection: "Thomas saith to him: Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?" (John 14:5). But more especially St. Thomas is remembered for his incredulity when the other Apostles announced Christ's Resurrection to him: "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe" (John 20:25); but eight days later he made his act of faith, drawing down the rebuke of Jesus: "Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed" (John 20:29).

This exhausts all our certain knowledge regarding the Apostle but his name is the starting point of a considerable apocryphal literature, and there are also certain historical data which suggest that some of this apocryphal material may contains germs of truth. The principal document concerning him is the "Acta Thomae", preserved to us with some variations both in Greek and in Syriac, and bearing unmistakeable signs of its Gnostic origin. It may indeed be the work of Bardesanes himself. The story in many of its particulars is utterly extravagant, but it is the early date, being assigned by Harnack (Chronologie, ii, 172) to the beginning of the third century, before A. D. 220. If the place of its origin is really Edessa, as Harnack and others for sound reasons supposed (ibid., p. 176), this would lend considerable probability to the statement, explicitly made in "Acta" (Bonnet, cap. 170, p.286), that the relics of Apostle Thomas, which we know to have been venerated at Edessa, had really come from the East. The extravagance of the legend may be judged from the fact that in more than one place (cap. 31, p. 148) it represents Thomas (Judas Thomas, as he is called here and elsewhere in Syriac tradition) as the twin brother of Jesus. The Thomas in Syriac is equivalant to didymos in Greek, and means twin. Rendel Harris who exaggerates very much the cult of the Dioscuri, wishes to regards this as a transformation of a pagan worship of Edessa but the point is at best problematical. The story itself runs briefly as follows: At the division of the Apostles, India fell to the lot of Thomas, but he declared his inability to go, whereupon his Master Jesus appeared in a supernatural way to Abban, the envoy of Gundafor, an Indian king, and sold Thomas to him to be his slave and serve Gundafor as a carpender. Then Abban and Thomas sailed away until they came to Andrapolis, where they landed and attended the marriage feast of the ruler's daughter. Strange occurences followed and Christ under the appearence of Thomas exhorted the bride to remain a Virgin. Coming to India Thomas undertook to build a palace for Gundafor, but spend the money entrusted to him on the poor. Gundafor imprisoned him; but the Apostle escaped miraculously and Gundafor was converted. Going about the country to preach, Thomas met with strange adventures from dragons and wild asses. Then he came to the city of King Misdai (Syriac Mazdai), where he converted Tertia the wife of Misdai and Vazan his son. After this he was condemed to death, led out of city to a hill, and pierced through with spears by four soldiers. He was buried in the tomb of the ancient kings but his remains were afterwards removed to the West.

Now it is certainly a remarkable fact that about the year A.D. 46 a king was reigning over that part of Asia south of Himalayas now represented by Afghanistan, Baluchistan, the Punjab, and Sind, who bore the name Gondophernes or Guduphara. This we know both from the discovery of coins, some of the Parthian type with Greek legends, others of the Indian types with the legends in an Indian dialect in Kharoshthi characters. Despite sundry minor variations the identity of the name with the Gundafor of the "Acta Thomae" is unmistakable and is hardly disputed. Further we have the evidence of the Takht-i-Bahi inscription, which is dated and which the best specialists accept as establishing the King Gunduphara probably began to reign about A.D. 20 and was still reigning in 46. Again there are excellent reasons for believing that Misdai or Mazdai may well be transformation of a Hindu name made on the Iranian soil. In this case it will probably represent a certain King Vasudeva of Mathura, a successor of Kanishka. No doubt it can be urged that the Gnostic romancer who wrote the "Acta Thomae" may have adopted a few historical Indian names to lend verisimilitude to his fabrication, but as Mr. Fleet urges in his severely critical paper "the names put forward here in connection with St.Thomas are distinctly not such as have lived in Indian story and tradition" (Joul. of R. Asiatic Soc.,1905, p.235).

On the other hand, though the tradition that St. Thomas preached in "India" was widely spread in both East and West and is to be found in such writers as Ephraem Syrus, Ambrose, Paulinus, Jerome, and, later Gregory of Tours and others, still it is difficult to discover any adequate support for the long-accepted belief that St. Thomas pushed his missionary journeys as far south as Mylapore, not far from Madras, and there suffered martyrdom. In that region is still to be found a granite bas-relief cross with a Pahlavi (ancient Persian) inscription dating from the seventh century, and the tradition that it was here that St. Thomas laid down his life is locally very strong. Certain it is also that on the Malabar or west coast of southern India a body of Christians still exists using a form of Syriac for its liturgical language. Whether this Church dates from the time of St. Thomas the Apostle (there was a Syro-Chaldean bishop John "from India and Persia" who assisted at the Council of Nicea in 325) or whether the Gospel was first preached there in 345 owing to the Persian persecution under Shapur (or Sapor), or whether the Syrian missionaries who accompanied a certain Thomas Cana penetrated to the Malabar coast about the year 745 seems difficult to determine. We know only that in the sixth century Cosmas Indicopleustes speaks of the existence of Christians at Male (?Malabar) under a bishop who had been consecrated in Persia. King Alfred the Great is stated in the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" to have sent an expedition to establish relations with these Christians of the Far East. On the other hand the reputed relics of St. Thomas were certainly at Edessa in the fourth century, and there they remained until they were translated to Chios in 1258 and towards to Ortona. The improbable suggestion that St. Thomas preached in America (American Eccles. Rev., 1899, pp.1-18) is based upon a misunderstanding of the text of the Acts of Apostles (i, 8; cf. Berchet "Fonte italiane per la storia della scoperta del Nuovo Mondo", II, 236, and I, 44).


119 posted on 01/11/2005 5:31:10 AM PST by Aquinasfan (Isaiah 22:22, Rev 3:7, Mat 16:19)
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To: patriot_wes

Ah, anti-Catholicism at its best!

Read the Early Church Fathers pw. Read what the men who were taught by the Apostles themselves said about authentic Christianity.

You may be surprised.

http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/


120 posted on 01/11/2005 5:54:58 AM PST by undirish01 (Go Irish! If only we can get the theology dept. turned around.)
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