Saint Thomas; Apostle and Martyr

This is the last Feast the Church keeps before the great one of the Nativity of her Lord and Spouse. She interrupts the Greater Ferias in order to pay her tribute of honour to Thomas, the Apostle of Christ, whose glorious martyrdom has consecrated this twenty-first day of December, and has procured for the Christian people powerful patron, that will introduce them to the divine Babe of Bethlehem.

To none of the Apostles could this day have been so fittingly assigned as to St. Thomas. It was St. Thomas whom we needed St. Thomas, whose festal patronage would aid us to believe and hope in that God whom we see not, and who comes to us in silence and humility in order to try our Faith. St. Thomas was once guilty of doubting, when he ought to have believed and only learnt the necessity of Faith by the sad experience of incredulity he comes then most appropriately to defend us, by the power of his example and prayers, against the temptations which proud human reason might excite within us. Let us pray to him with confidence. In that heaven of Light and Vision, where his repentance and love have placed him, he will intercede for us, and gain for us that docility of mind and heart, which will enable us to see and recognise Him, who is the Expected of Nations, and who, though the King of the world, will give no other signs of his majesty, than the swaddling-clothes and tears of Babe. But let us first read the Acts of our holy Apostle. The Church has deemed it prudent to give us them in an exceedingly abridged form, which contains only the most reliable facts, gathered from authentic sources and thus, she excludes all those details, which have no historic authority.

Thomas the Apostle, who was also named Didymus, was Galilean. After he had received the Holy Ghost, he travelled through many provinces, preaching the Gospel of Christ. He taught the principles of Christian faith and practice to the Parthians, Medes, Persians, Hircanians, and Bactriaus. He finally went to the Indies, and in structed the inhabitants of those countries in the Chris tian religion. Up to the last, he gained for himself the es teem of all men by the holiness of his life and teaching, and by the wonderful miracles he wrought. He stirred up, also, in their hearts, the love of Jesus Christ. The King of those parts, worshipper of idols, was, on the contrary, only the more irritated by all these things. He condemned the Saint to be pierced to death by javelins which punishment was inflicted at Calamina, and gave Thomas the highest honour of his Apostolate, the crown of martyrdom.

THE GREAT ANTIPHON OF ST. THOMAS.

Thomas Didymus who didst merit to see Christ we beseech thee, by most earnest supplication, help us miserable sinners, lest we be condemned with the ungodly, at the Coming of the Judge.

LET US PRAY.

Grant, Lord, we beseech thee, that we may rejoice on the solemnity of thy blessed Apostle, Thomas to the end that we may always have the assistance of his prayers, and zealously profess the faith he taught. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The following Prayer is from the Matins of the Gothic, or Mozarabic, Breviary.

Lord Jesus Christ, who hast placed on the head of thy Martyr, Thomas the Apostle, crown made of that precious stone, that is founded in the foundation that so he might not be con founded, because he believed in thee nor be uncrowned, because he laid down his life for thee may there be, by his intercession, in us thy servants, that true Faith, whereby we may confess thee with most ready hearts before persecutors, that thus, by the same great Martyr's intercession, we may not be confound ed before thee and thy Angels. Amen.

O glorious Apostle Thomas! who didst lead to Christ so many unbelieving nations, hear now the prayers of the faithful, who beseech thee to lead them to that same Jesus, who, in five days, will have shown himself to his Church. That we may merit to ap pear in his divine presence, we need, before all other graces, the light which leads to him.

That light is Faith then, pray that we may have Faith. Heretofore, our Saviour had compassion on thy weakness, and deigned to remove from thee the doubt of his having risen from the grave; pray to him for us, that he will mercifully come to our assistance, and make himself felt by our heart.

We ask not, holy Apostle to see him with the eyes of our body, but with those of our faith, for he said to thee, when he showed himself to thee Blessed are they who have not seen, and have believed Of this happy number, we desire to be. We beseech thee, therefore, pray that we may obtain the Faith of the heart and will, that so, when we behold the divine Infant wrapped in swaddling-clothes and laid in manger, we may cry out My Lord and my God Pray, holy Apostle, for the nations thou didst evangelise, but which have fallen back again into the shades of death.

May the day soon come, when the Sun of Justice will once more shine upon them. Bless the efforts of those apostolic men, who have devoted their labours and their very lives to the work of the Missions; pray that the days of darkness may be shortened, and that the countries, which were watered by thy blood, may at length see that kingdom of God established amongst them, which thou didst preach to them, and for which we also are in waiting.

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St. Thomas- Carravagio