Saint Thomas Cave
13.015800,80.227000
Description
A slightly modified natural sacred cave in charnocktite (note 1) or »pigmatitic granite« (note 2) is reputed to be the site where Doubting Thomas (compare: Saint –>Thomas Crypt below the neo-gothic San Thome Cathedral at Mylapore), the Christian's Saint Thomas the Apostle (locally: San Thome) has lived when he first came to India in about 54 AD or 58 AD (note 3). NOT SEEN: CHON (1994); HOSTEN (1936); LOVE (1913); MEDLEYCOTT (1905); MILNE RAY (1892); VÄTH (1926). CULTURAL HISTORY - Human use: The cave can be considered as sort of a sacred show cave that attracts thousands of mostly Christian pilgrim visitors on the fourth Saturday and Sunday following Easter (LONELY PLANET, South India 2001: 542). »… but it has been proved that it is Thomas Aquinas whose name was given to this place« (SMITH, G 1882: 370-371). SITUATION: On Chinnamalai or, in English, on the Little Mount (note 4), a low but wide hillock or »rocky knoll« (SMITH, G 1882: 371) which rather spreads than rises about 200 m in a direct line east of a bus station with the same name (note 5): Watch out for the upper part of a spread-eagled concrete Jesus peeping over the three to four-storeyed buildings facing the main road. Chinnamalai (chinna = little, malai = hill) lies in the suburb Saidapet (Pin Code 600093, south-west of Madres (renamed Chennai) Central Station and at a travelling distance of about 13 km along the road from the city towards Meenambakkam Airport and Tiruchirapalli. The top of the cavernous hump is reached by a narrow, though motorable road or by two flights of steps that ascend from the eastern or southern sides. Here stands the tiny 16th century church next to the modern San Thome Cathedral (a circular concrete church dedicated 1971 to Our Lady of Health). Entering the old church (currently serving as Blessed Sacrament Chapel and connected with a corridor with the circular church) is the altar. This is reached by a flight of ten steps flanked by two wooden cabinets. The northern cabinet, upon ascending on the left, is actually the door leading to the natural cave in tectonically disturbed Charnocktite, a massive variety of granites in which stratification is indistinct, composed of blue quartz, feldspar and hypersthene (NEWBOLD, T J 1846a: 206; KUMAR, Ravindra 1996: 68-69). SITUATION 1882: »Madras … The southern suburb of Saint Thomé, 2 m. S. [3.2 km south] of. the Fort with an old Roman Catholic Charch, is identified by Heber and by H. H. Wilson with the Mailapoor or Mihilapoor, where the Apostle Thomas is said to have been martyred on 21st December 58 A.D. The rocky knoll of the Little Mount, 5 m. S.W. [8 km south-west] of Fort, with church dedicated to St. Thomas, attracts crowds under the belief that the Apostle perished there. A cave in which he concealed himself, and a cell in which he worshipped are shown, but it has been proved that it is Thomas Aquinas whose name was given to this place« (SMITH, G 1882: 370-371). CAVE DESCRIPTION 1726: »Under the high alter is a cavern about fourteen feet wide and and fifteen or sixteen deep. It is seven feet in height in the centre, and the only, and difficult, entrance is by a cleft in the rock about five feet high and one and a half wide. The cavern and the entrance have not been touched because of the conviction that St. Thomas the Apostle often retired there to pray« (DESIDERI 1726 edited by FILIPPI 1937: 336-339). CAVE DESCRIPTION 1728: »Little Mount is a rock, not very high, but much scarped on all sides except the west and south. On the latter side is a stair. There are two churches, one being on the north towards Madras, half way up the hill. Access to it is gained by wide stone steps, having two or three bends, which lead to a fairly large space of ground artificially levelled on the rock. From this space you enter the church, which is dedicated to the Virgin. Beneath the altar, which is raised ten steps, there is a large cave nearly 14 feet long and 15 to 16 feet below ground. It is situated so that only the western end of the cavern is beneath the altar. The grotto, whether natural or excavated from the rock, measures not more than seven feet at its greatest height. It is entered with difficulty by a crevice« (DESIDERI s.a.: Florence Manuscript, pages 245-250; DESIDERI 1728, 3: 101-116 in LOVE 1913). CAVE DESCRIPTION 2002: A slightly descending corridor towards east (on average 1.7 m high and 0.5 m wide, 3 m long) enters an oblong shaped chamber with a vaulted roof and a clean and more or less level floor. No trace of human workmanship is visible on the rock surfaces which ha been left in their original state. The only man-made modifications disturbing the natural state of the cave are the marginal entrance (partly walled and floored), an erected altar and an iron grill cemented into a natural daylight window opposite of the cave entrance. One solitary boulder (about 100 kg?) of reddish colour, believed to show imprints of St. Thomas' elbows, is obviously imported from somewhere else. Close to the window a 0.6 by 0.25 cm large patch of the natural rock surface is covered by a thin secondary deposit of calcite structured by a few near vertical ribs (micro bacon?) said to show a miraculous imprint of apostle's fingers (huge!). The thin flowstone coating may originate from decomposed feldspar --not from the cement of the iron grill-- but solutional processes scarcely played a role in the development of the cave. One wonders if tectonically loosened boulders were (in search of drinking water?) removed by hand? Even in the dry season of January 2002 there were shallow puddles of water on the cave floor. Set apart from the church above the cave is an erected building sheltering the apostle's hermitage (note 6). Here is a wonderful "spring" of water, which is not fed by plausible natural sources but, perhaps at night time, by miraculous buckets (or so). The water, accumulating in a narrow fissure, which is about one metre long and deep, is likely to find a way to ooze into the cave below (Gebauer 2002.01.11). LITERARY SOURCES: KERR (1811, vol. 1, part 1 chapter 1, section IV): »Voyage of Sighelm to India, in the reign of Alfred, King of England (Hakluyt, II. 38): […] All that is said of this singular incident in the Saxon Chronicle (Chron. Sax. Ed. Gibson, p. 86), is: In the year 883, Alfred sent Sighelm and Athelstan to Rome, and likewise to Saints Thomas and Bartholomew in India, with the alms which he had vowed« (note 7). KERR (1812, vol. 6, part 2, book 3: Continuation of the discoveries and conquests of the Portuguese in the East; together with some account of the early voyages of other European Nations to India; Section VI: Continuation of the Portuguese Transactions in India, from 1564 to the year 1571): »It is the received opinion in India, that the apostle St. Thomas was slain at 'Antmodur', a mountain about a league and half from Meliapour, where were two caves into which he used to retire for prayer and meditation. The nearest of these caves now belongs to the Jesuits, and the other has been converted into a church dedicated to our Lady of the Mount. According to the legend, the apostle being one day at prayers in the former of these caves, opposite to a cleft which let in the light, a bramin thrust in a spear at the hole and gave the saint a mortal wound, part of the spear breaking off and remaining in his body. The saint had just strength enough remaining to go into the other cave, where he died embracing a stone on which a representation of the cross was engraved. His disciples removed his body, and buried it in the church which he had built, where the body was afterwards found by Emanuel de Faria and the priest Antonio Penteado, who were sent thither on purpose by king Emanuel. When, in the year 1547, the Portuguese were clearing out the cave or oratory in which the apostle died, a stone was found which seems to have been that he clung to at his death. This stone is about a yard long and three quarters broad, of a grey colour with some red spots. On its middle there is a carved porch, having letters between two borders, and within two banisters, on which are two twisted figures resembling dogs in a sitting posture. From their heads springs a graceful arch of five borders, between every two of which are knobs resembling heads. In the hollow of this arch or portal is a pedestal of two steps, from the upper of which rises a branch on each side, and over these, as if hung in the air, is a cross, said to resemble that of the military order of Alcantara; but in the print the ends resemble three crescents with their convex sides outwards and their points meeting, like those in many old churches in Europe. Over all is a dove on the wing, as if descending to touch the cross with its beak. When, in the year 1551, this oratory was repaired and beautified, this stone was solemnly set up and consecrated; and when the priest was reading the gospel, it began to turn black and shining, then sweated, and returned to its original colour, and plainly discovered, the red spots of blood, which were before obscure. The letters on this stone could not be understood till the year 1561, when a learned bramin said they consisted of 36 hieroglyphic characters, each containing a sentence, and explained them to this effect: "In the time of the son of Sagad the gentile, who reigned 30 years, the 'one only' GOD came upon earth, and was incarnate in the womb of a virgin. He abolished the law of the Jews, 'whom he punished for the sins of men', after he had been thirty-three years in the world, and had instructed 'twelve' servants in the truth which he preached. A king of three crowns 'Cheraldcone, Indalacone, Cuspindiad, and Alexander'; king of 'Ertinabarad', with 'Catharine' his daughter, and many virgins, with six families, voluntarily followed the law of 'Thomas', because the law of truth, and he gave them the sign of the cross to adore. Going up to the place of 'Antenodur', a bramin thrust him through with a lance, and he died embracing this cross which was stained with his blood. His disciples carried him to 'Maiale', where they buried him in his own church with the lance still in his body. And as we, the above mentioned kings, saw this, we carved these letters." Hence it may be inferred, that 'Maiale' was the ancient name of 'Meliapour', now called 'St Thomas'. This stone afterwards sweated sometimes, which, till the year 1561, was a good omen, but has since been a bad one.« CAVE LIFE: Mircea ELIADE (1996: 88; 1998: 88) encountered in December 1928 a scorpion at the cave entrance.
NOTE 1: Charnocktite: A massive variety of granites in which stratification is indistinct, composed of blue quartz, feldspar and hypersthene (KUMAR, Ravindra 1996: 68-69)NOTE 2: »Much of the granite near the Little Mount I found to be pigmatitic, that is, a binary granite of feslpar and quartz, without mica« (NEWBOLD, T J 1846a: 206). NOTE 3: The dates vary: 58 AD (LONELY PLANET, South India 2001: 541). NOTE 4: Both the 70 m high Chinnamalai (in English: Little Mount) and the larger (90 m high) Parangi Konda (Fringy Konda, Fringi Malai; in English: Saint Thomas Mount) lie some 10 km south of Fort St. George and are about 3 km apart from each other and. The St. Thomas' Hill in the suburb Alandur lies not far from Mohite Stadium at Saidapet. »… Chinnamalai, the Little Mount, where a cave is reputed to have sheltered the Apostle Thomas, martyred by Hindus who took exception to his mission … He preached, it is said, to crowds who gathered below this cave, which now has an altar with a small Greek cross said to date from the time of the Apostle« (WARD 1991 edited 1993: 10). NOTE 5: To get to Chinnamalai (Little Mount), take bus No. 16 from Chennai Egmore, No. 18E from Parry's Corner, or any of the Series 88 from Broadway. NOTE 6: »At the top of the rock is a small hermitage built by our Fathers, and the Church of the Resurrection. On the rock under the high altar is sculptured a cross about a foot high, exactly like the one on the Big [St. Thomas] Hill, which changes colour and sweats at the same time. Near the high altar is the well of Saint Thomas. Moved to compassion by the suffering from thirst of the people who came to hear his sermons, he touched the rock with his stuff as he prayed, and a fountain of clear water gushed forth; it is still used as a remedy for divers maladies« (DESIDERI edited by FILIPPI 1937: 336-339). NOTE 7: »In the year 883, Alfred, King of England, hearing that there existed a Christian church in the Indies, dedicated to the memory of St Thomas and St Bartholomew, dispatched one Sighelm, or Sithelm, a favourite ecclesiastic of his court, to carry his royal alms to that distant shrine. Sighelm successfully executed the honourable commission with which he had been entrusted, and returned in safety into England. After his return, he was promoted to the bishoprick of Sherburn, or Shireburn, in Dorsetshire; and it is recorded, that he left at his decease, in the treasury of that church, sundry spices and jewels, which he had brought with him from the Indies« (ANGLO SAXON CHRONICLE, edited by Hakluyt (II. 38); edited by Gibson (p. 86); edited by KERR (1811, vol. 1, part 1, [the second] section IV): Voyage of Sighelm to India, in the reign of Alfred, King of England). NOTE 8: »It is the received opinion in India, that the apostle St. Thomas was slain at 'Antmodur', a mountain about a league and half from Meliapour, where were two caves into which he used to retire for prayer and meditation. The nearest of these caves now belongs to the Jesuits, and the other has been converted into a church dedicated to our Lady of the Mount« (KERR 1812, VI,2.iii: Continuation of the discoveries and conquests of the Portuguese in the East; together with some account of the early voyages of other European Nations to India; Section VI: Continuation of the Portuguese Transactions in India, from 1564 to the year 1571). NOTE 9: HAMILTON (1727) as quoted by GLENNIE (s.a. circa 1948: Mss Preliminary record …) after LOVE (1913).
Documents
Bibliography 08/06/2016- Basham, Arthur Llewellyn 1954, 1963, 1967 edited 1997; Chon, Kuttikhat Purushothama 1994; Desideri, Ippolito 1726; Eliade, Mircea 1996, 1998; Filippi, Filippo de 1930; Filippi, Filippo de & Wessels, C 1937, 1995; Hamilton, Walter 1727, 1744; Hosten, J 1936; Kerr, Robert 1811, 1812; Lonely Planet, India 1997, 1999; Lonely Planet, South India 2001; Love, Henry Davison 1913; Medleycott, A E 1905; Newbold, Thomas John 1846a; Smith, George 1882; Ward, Philip 1991,1993.
History
LEGEND & HISTORY: 0054 or 0058 (note 3 again): The apostle Saint Thomas arrived in India and was killed in 72 AD on Little Mount. His body was transferred by King Mahadevan and his son Vizayan to the the little church built by the apostle at Mylapur (also Mailapuram, Malliapore, Meliapur or Mihilaropya; possibly the Meliarja of Pliny). 0884: King Alfred of England, to fulfil a vow, sent an envoy to India with rich gifts for the tomb of St. Thomas. Florence of Worcester, writing some 200 years later, added that the name of the envoy was Swithelm, and that he returned safely. William of Malmesbury, on the other hand, gives his name as Bishop Sigelinus, and states that he brought back a rich present of jewels and spices from the local Indian King, who, if the story is true, must have been the Chola King Aditya I or one of his chiefs (BASHAM 1997: 344). 1290 (circa): Marco Polo saw the grave of St. Thomas and remarked on its popularity as a place of pilgrimage. 1545: Fra Gaspar Coelho, Vicar of the church at Mylapur, recorded that one Diego Fernandes from Portugal, had erected in 1523 an oratory on top of Little Mount. The spot had already been a place of pilgrimage. 1547 March 23: Fra Gaspar Coelho laid at the same spot the foundation stone of a larger church, which was originally known as the Church of our Lady of the Mount (note 8) but soon came to be called the Church of our Lady of Expectations. An arch in the church stills carried the Portuguese inscription "Senhora da Expectacao". 1551: The Portuguese built a vaulted church at Little Mount dedicated to Our Lady of Health (LONELY PLANET, India 1999: 1111-1112) or Madonna of Health (LONELY PLANET, South India 2001: 542). 1612: Antonio de Gonsalves de Taide, a pious Goanese, commissioned a church above the cave (WARD 1993:10). 1705 ± (circa): HAMILTON (1727) observed during the visit (1688 - 1723) of his ship to the East the cave and the "cleft" (water hole) above it (note 9): »There is [at Malliapore] a little dry Rock on the Land, within it, called the Little Mount, where the Apostle designed to have hid himself till the fury of the Pagan Priests, his Persecutors, had blown over. There was a convenient Cave in that Rock for his Purpose, but not one Drop of Water to drink, so St. Thomas cleft the Rock with his Hand, and commanded water to come into the Clift [sic!], which Command it readily obeyed; and ever since, there is Water in the Clift, both sweet and clear. When I saw it, there was not above three Gallons in it.« 1726 December: Ippolito (Hypollitus) Desideri, the Jesuit Father, went to St. Thomas (San Thomé), a college of the Society of Jesus at Meliapùr, 5 km south of the walled city of »Madrastá [Madras, renamed Chennai].« In the middle of December 1726 Father Ippolito visited the Hill and the Mount and subsequently reported St. Thomas Cave and some legends associated with it (DESIDERI s.a.01: Florence Manuscript, pages 245-250; DESIDERI 1728, 3: 101-116). 1928 December: Mircea ELIADE (1996: 88; 1998: 88) encountered a scorpion at the entrance [indicated by Manfred Moser 2005.07.26].1962: The late Archbishop Louis Mathias, S.D.B. (the last European Bishop), had an asphalted road laid by military from the south-western base of the hill right up to the top. 1971 August 15: A new church of circular design, built from steel re-inforced concrete, was opened for divine worship by Most Rev. Dr. Rayappa Arulappa, Archbishop of Madras - Mylapur. 2002.01.11: H. D. Gebauer and Werner Busch visited and noticed a calcite coating (speleothem) inside the cave.
Caves nearby
| Distance (km) | Name | Length (m) | Depth (m) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5.0 | Saint Thomas Crypt | ||
| 114.9 | Madras Cistern | ||
| 381.6 | MANGALAGIRI CAVES | ||
| 387.5 | Undavalli Cave Temples | ||
| 388.2 | VADDAMU CAVERN | ||
| 389.9 | MOGALARAJAPURAM, Vijayawada (Caves at) | ||
| 389.9 | AKKANA & MADANNA, Vijayawada (Tunnel of) | ||
| 391.5 | BEZWADA CUTTINGS, Vijayawada | ||
| 397.0 | VENKATESHWARA CAVE, Amravati: Vaikuntapuram |