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The documents, which had been brought from India, to Nepal, and then to Tibet, were
originally written in Pali, the religious language of the Buddhists, and then translated into
Tibetan. Notovitch believed that the verses “may have been actually been spoken by St.
Thomas– historical sketches traced by his own hand or under his direction.”
There are various references to the apostle Thomas (also known as Didymus, Judas, and
“twin brother of Christ, apostle of the Highest who shares in the knowledge of the hidden words
of Christ…”), who, according to religious tradition, introduced Christianity to India in 52 AD.
The apocryphal Acta Thomae (The Acts of St. Thomas) written in the early 3rd century, said:
“When the Apostles had been for a time in Jerusalem, they divided the countries among them in
order that each might preach in the region which fell to him; and India (Parthia, northwest region
of India, from the Euphrates to Indus and India proper), fell to the lot of Thomas.” He went to
India as a carpenter, and preached the gospel to the Parthians, Medes, Persians, Bactrians,
Indians, and Hyrecaneans.
One story said that he arrived at the coast of Malabar in 52, and established his first church
there. Another story said that after spending some time in the North, he went south, along the
coast of the Arabian Sea. And yet another story said he arrived in the state of Kerala in 52, where
it is believed that Thomas established seven churches: Cranganore, Palur, Kottakavu,
Kokkamangalam, Niram, Chayal, and Quilon. After a couple years he went to South Tamil, and
Tamil Najd.
According to a 2nd century Syrian manuscript called The Doctrine of the Apostles, it says:
“After the death of the Apostles, there were Guides and Rulers in the Churches; and
whatever the Apostles communicated to them, and they had received from them, they
taught to the multitudes. They, again, at their deaths also committed and delivered to their
disciples after them everything which they had received from the Apostles; also what
James had written from Jerusalem and Simon from the City of Rome, and John from
Ephesus and Mark from the great Alexandria, and Andrew from Phrygia and Luke from
Macedonia and Thomas from India, that the epistles of an Apostle might be received and
read in the churches in every place ... India and all its own countries and those bordering
on it even to the farthest sea, received the Apostles’ Hand of Priesthood from Thomas,
who was Guide and Ruler in the Church which he built there and ministered there.”
His writings speak of the conversion of a king named Gundaphar, and in the 19th century,
some coins were discovered in Afghanistan, near the capital city of Kabul, and in the western
and southern regions on the Indian Punjab, which bear the name Godophares, and date back to
20 and 40 AD.
He went from the west coast to the east, to Mylapore (near Madras in southern India, now
called St. Thomas Mount), on the Bay of Bengal, where in 72, he was killed by an assassin sent
by the ministers of the king, while he was kneeling in prayer. After being pierced by the spear,
he fell on a hand-carved stone cross. This cross was rediscovered by some Portuguese workers
on March 22, 1547, as they were digging the foundation for the church that was built on the site.
His relics were preserved in a cathedral dedicated to him. The Roman Catholic Church considers
the Cathedral of St. Thomas a Basilica, because it was erected over his tomb. However, another
source said he was buried six miles away at the church he built, near Fort St. George in Tamil
Nadj in India.
Notovich published his findings in New York in 1890 as The Life of Saint Issa, and in