Christianity is not a colonial legacy but an Indian tradition |
Christianity has been part of India’s spiritual and cultural landscape for over two millennia. Through tradition, via customs, art and historical records, it has been affirmed that Saint Thomas the Apostle brought the message of Christ to the Malabar Coast in the 1st century AD.
The Acts of Thomas describe his journey via the Parthian Empire and a sea route to “India”. Early Church theologians and writers of the third and fourth centuries, such as Origen, Eusebius, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Ambrose of Milan, mention Thomas preaching in India. Gregory of Nazianzus states in his Oration: “Even those Kingdoms which were shut out by rugged mountains became accessible to them, as India to Thomas…”
Ambrose of Milan spoke about Christianity in India in his commentary on the Book of Psalms, where he mentions that the Apostle Thomas carried the gospel to the Indian people.
Persian crosses still standing at St Thomas Mount, Chennai, and Syriac........