The holy Apostle Thomas was from the Galilean city of Paneas and was engaged in fishing. Having heard the good news of Jesus Christ, he left everything and followed Him. The Apostle Thomas is numbered among the Twelve holy apostles, the twelve disciples of the Savior.
According to Holy Scripture, the holy apostle did not believe the accounts of the other disciples concerning the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: “Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe” (John 20:25). On the eighth day after the Resurrection, the Lord appeared to the Apostle Thomas and showed him His wounds. “My Lord and my God!” exclaimed the holy apostle (John 20:28). “Thomas, who was once weaker than the other apostles in faith,” says Saint John Chrysostom, “became, by the grace of God, more courageous, more zealous, and more tireless than all of them, so that he traveled with his preaching almost the whole earth, not fearing to proclaim the Word of God to wild peoples.”
According to Church Tradition, the holy Apostle Thomas founded Christian communities in Palestine, Mesopotamia, Parthia, Ethiopia, and India. He sealed his preaching of the Gospel with a martyr’s death. For converting to Christ the son and wife of the ruler of the Indian city of Meliapur (Meliapur), the holy apostle was imprisoned, endured tortures, and finally, pierced by five spears, departed to the Lord.
Portions of the relics of the holy Apostle Thomas are in India, Hungary, and on Mount Athos. At the beginning of the 21st century, part of the honorable head of the apostle was preserved in the Monastery of Saint John the Theologian on Patmos, Greece.
The name of the Apostle Thomas is associated with the Arabian (or Arapetian) Icon of the Mother of God (commemorated September 6).
People pray to the Apostle Thomas in times of troubling unbelief in the soul, as one who himself passed through this heavy state.