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Thursday, 29 July
Friday, 30 July
Saturday, 31 July
St Thomas’s Day
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Thomas The Apostle, also called St Thomas, Judas Thomas Didymus or Jude Thomas Didymus, was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ, who appears in the Synoptic Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament.
There has been, and continues to be disagreement and uncertainty as to the identity of St Thomas. Some have claimed that the mainstream Christian tradition has mistakenly divided the person of Jude the Twin and rendered one man as two, both St Jude and St Thomas. However, the lists of the Twelve Apostles in Luke 6 and Acts 1 clearly treat Judas son of James (St Jude) and Thomas as separate people. Mainstream Christian churches follow this by regarding the two Apostles as separate individuals.
Thomas is revered as a saint in both the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox churches and he is remembered each year on Saint Thomas Sunday, which is always one week after Easter. Thomas’ feast day is the 3rd July, which is also recognised in the Anglican and some protestant churches. In some churches it is celebrated on 21st December each year.
If the various references to Thomas throughout religious history are to be believed, he was one of the most widely travelled disciples of all. His is the "Doubting Thomas" of Biblical fame and so is documented as being alive at the time of Jesus Christ.
It is said that he died in Madras, India around 70-75 CE. There are various references to him in Syria, which is not surprising, but there are many references which associate him with India, apart from his death.
Thomas is attributed with spreading Christianity in central and South America through the Portuguese and Spanish sailors and an element of evangelisation which linked Thomas (and what are supposed to be his footprints) to early civilisations in lands only discovered by the Iberian voyagers centuries later.
Some state that St Thomas took Christianity to China and Japan in 64 CE and 70 CE respectively.
If you're looking for a way to commemorate this event, you might be interested in this article: Commemorations with Cross Stitch
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