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Holy Apostle Thomas - in Hebrew, Didymus - in Greek (both mean twin), originally from Galilee, hearing the preaching of Jesus Christ when He passed through cities and villages, teaching and healing people - seeing His miracles, followed Him, persistently stayed with Him throughout His service to the salvation of the human race and was honored to be among the 12 Apostles Him. Thomas was deeply devoted to Christ. When Jesus, before resurrecting the dead Lazarus, intended to go again to Judea, and the disciples objected to Him: “Rabbi! How long have the Jews sought to stone You, and You are going there again?” then “Thomas said to the disciples: let us also go and die with Him” (John 11:8, 16). – When Jesus, in his last conversation with His disciples, told them that He was going to prepare a place for them in the abodes of His Father, and then He would come again and take them to Himself so that they would be where He was, then “Thomas said to Him: Lord! We don’t know where you are going, and how can we know the way?” To this sorrowful bewilderment of a loving soul, Jesus responded: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me. If you knew Me, you would also know My Father. And from now on you know Him and have seen Him”... (John 14:5–7). After these two mentions of Thomas, the significant appearance of Jesus Christ to Him after the resurrection is recorded in the Gospel: when on the first day of the week, the same day that Christ was resurrected, “in the evening, when the doors of the house where His disciples had gathered were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them: Peace be with you! Having said this, He showed them His hands, and His feet, and His ribs. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.” Thus, Christ’s dying promise was fulfilled: “I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice” (John 16:22). “But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not here with them when Jesus came. The other disciples said to him: We have seen the Lord. But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the marks of the nails, and put my finger into the marks of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe” (John 20:24-25). Such distrust can not be explained only by fiery regret that the Apostle was not able to convince himself with his own feelings of the appearance of the risen Christ... by the need not only to see, but also to touch what the other Apostles had only seen and the truths of which his heart, which had long believed in the omnipotence of the Son of God, could not reject... Meanwhile, allowed not without the providence of God, this manifestation of unbelief of one of Christ’s closest disciples served finally - through the Apostle Thomas’s touching of the wounds of Christ - to the clearest revelation of the truth of the resurrection of Christ... “After eight days, when the disciples of Christ were again in the house, and Thomas with them, Jesus came, when the doors were locked, stood in the midst of them and said: Peace be with you! Then he says to Thomas: bring your finger here and look at My hands, give me your hand and place it in My side; and do not be an unbeliever, but a believer” (John 20:26–27). But, seeing Christ and hearing His address to him, Thomas exclaimed only from the depths of his believing heart: “My Lord and my God!” – “Jesus said to him: You believed because you saw Me; Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). Thus, the unbelief of the Apostle Thomas also led to the Lord responding to him with a clear indication of what the property of true faith in Him should be. After the ascension of Jesus Christ and the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles, Thomas preached in Palestine, Mesopotamia 91 and other countries. Church writers Origen, Eusebius, Rufinus, Socrates speak about his preaching among the Parthians; John Chrysostom mentions preaching in Ethiopia, Gregory Nazianzen, Gregory the Great speak about preaching in India, and others about other places 92. In Discourse LXI on the Gospel of John, St. John Chrysostom speaks of St. Apostle Thomas: “Thomas, who was once weaker than the other Apostles in faith, became by the grace of God more courageous, zealous and tireless than all of them, so that he went around with his preaching almost the entire earth, not being afraid to proclaim the word of God to the fierce, savage and bloodthirsty peoples.” In various ancient legends about the Apostle Thomas there is no complete accuracy and sometimes later additions are added to them, but one of them, in which a circumstance is given that expresses the meaning and significance of charity, is conveyed equally by many narrators about his life. It dates back to the time before the holy Apostle undertook a trip to India - for the purpose of preaching in this country. When, during the stay of the Apostle Thomas in Jerusalem, an Indian merchant came there and, on behalf of his king, was looking for an artist here who would undertake to build a luxurious palace for the king, Thomas, taking advantage of this opportunity to penetrate into the eastern countries assigned to him for preaching the Gospel, pretended to be a skilled builder and went to India with the merchant. Having arrived there and received money from the king for the construction of the palace, Thomas, instead of carrying out the work that he had taken upon himself, began to distribute the king's gold to the poor and sick and at the same time, thus entering into relations with the people, began to diligently preach the word of God to them. Some time later, when the king wanted to know about the progress of the work, he was given to know that the palace would soon be ready, that all that remained was to put on the roof. Meanwhile, Thomas still distributed the money again sent by the king to the poor, saying: “I thank You, Lord, that You arrange the salvation of people in various ways!” Finally, when the king found out that Thomas was deceiving him and even seemed to be laughing at him, because in response to his questions about the construction of the palace, Thomas replied that “the king in this life will not see the magnificent chambers built for him, but will live in them and will rejoice in them forever only after his death,” then, angry, he ordered Thomas to be imprisoned and put to death. Meanwhile, the king's beloved brother suddenly fell dangerously ill. During his illness, a vision showed him dwellings prepared for the saints, and he was asked to choose one of them that he would like best. When he chose the best, the angel said to him: you cannot occupy this dwelling, because Thomas built it with your brother’s gold, and it belongs to your brother, the king... Having come to his senses, the sick man told his brother about the vision and, understanding the meaning of this vision, the king summoned from prison the builder who promised and actually created a royal chamber for him in the unearthly kingdom, and was enlightened by St. The Apostle, together with his brother, served as the light of Christian teaching, after which St. continued unhindered. Apostle Thomas spread the faith of Christ in India - until in India, in the city of Malipura 93, on the eastern side of the peninsula, he accepted martyrdom for converting the wife of the local ruler Tertiana and her sister Mygdonia to the Christian faith. The relics of the Apostle Thomas were transferred in 385 to the city of Edessa, where a magnificent church was built in his name, where travel from distant countries was undertaken to venerate the relics 94 . From church tradition it is known that at the time when the Dormition of the Mother of God came, the Apostle Thomas, who was preaching the Gospel in remote India, slowed down to arrive at the burial of the Mother of God, which was attended by all the other Apostles who had gathered on the day of her most honorable Dormition. And this served to make it known that the Mother of God was taken to heaven inseparable from Her body. Arriving after the burial on the third day, Thomas greatly grieved that he could not say goodbye with the Apostles and see off the body of the Mother of God. To console him, it was decided by the general council of the Apostles to open the coffin of the Mother of God for Thomas, and then they saw that only her burial shrouds lay in the coffin, and they learned that she had been ascended into heaven with her flesh 95. And the full glory of the One in Whom the world honors the undoubted and closest Intercessor of the Christian race before God was revealed... The Holy Church sings to the Holy Apostle Thomas: “Being a disciple of Christ, a participant in the Divine Council of the Apostles, having announced the resurrection of Christ through unbelief, and having assured Him of His most pure passion by touch, O Thomas is all-validated, and now ask us for peace and great mercy!” “Filled with the wisdom of grace, Christ’s Apostle and true servant, crying out to You in repentance: You are my God and Lord!” The ancient churches that existed in Mesopotamia since apostolic times, Ctesiphon and Nisibian, always revered St. as their Apostle. Ap. Thomas (indicative by Grig. Debolsky in the book “Days of Divine Services”, part II, p. 334). See "Full" Months East." archim. Sergius, vol. II, part II, p. 321. Since ancient times, Christians in this part of Asia have had a tradition that among them the faith of Christ was originally planted by Ap. Thomas or his disciples. When the Portuguese first arrived on the shores of India in 1500, they found a settlement of Christians in Malipura, who said that they had accepted the faith from St. Thomas, and this city at the end of the last century was called the city of St. Thomas (“Days of Divine Services.” Grig. Debolsky, part 1, p. 335). Since it is known that in India there are still relics of St. Ap. Thomas, then we must understand about the transfer of part of the relics to Edessa (see “Full Month of the East” by Archim. Sergius, vol. II, part 2, p. 321). Just as Jesus Christ was resurrected on the 3rd day, so the Mother of God and her body were taken to heaven - in accordance with the prediction of the prophet David: rise, O Lord, into Thy rest, Thou and the ark of Thy holiness (Ps. 132:8).