When did Christianity come to India? | The story of St. Thomas | St. Thomas Basilica, Chennai

When did Christianity reach India? And did you ever wonder who brought it here first? The answers may surprise you. It is commonly believed that Christianity came to India with St. Thomas as early as 52 CE. He is said to have landed in Kerala and the religion took root there. He then walked across to Mylapore in present-day Chennai, spoke of a new God in a new land, and left his footprints on the sands of time.
There are many fascinating stories behind how the religion grew, spread and evolved into the many different denominations you see spread across India today. This short video takes you to the tomb of St. Thomas, at Santhome Basilica in Chennai. And it takes you through the story of the arrival of Christianity in India. Did you know that the Thomas Christians of Kerala are considered one among the oldest followers of Christianity in the world? Here’s the story of the beginnings of Christianity in India.

#Storytrails #ThreeMinuteStorytrails #FiveMinuteStorytrails #History #India #IncredibleIndia #SanthomeBasilica #ChristianityinIndia #StThomas #StThomasBasilica #Chennai #ThomasChristians #Santhome #SanthomeChurch

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Image credits-
Title image and other photos of Santhome Basilica - Neetesh Photography
Shrine Of Saint Thomas At Mylapore, c. 1750s

St._Peter's_Basilica_in_Vatican_City -

St_James_Spain -


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[mangloreanwithabeard]

Im grateful that St. Thomas came to India and we have got the gift to Worship and Follow the true and living God Jesus Christ 🙏✝️

[arunraj]

Iam a Syriac Christyan from Kerala still we use Syriac language in our prayers.

[euroschmau]

I was fortunate to visit Saint Thomas' church in Chennai in 2017. It was right after Christmas too, so it was adorn whit so many colorful banners and decorations. Such a fascinating and illustrious history! I will visit Spain's Santiago de Compostela this year, after which I will have been to all three churches built over the remains of the Apostles.

[genesis]

I am American of Iraqi Christian Chaldean Catholic lineage. I’m a fluent speaker of the Aramaic language, no reading/writing, in fact I don’t even know the alphabet. Currently, is spoken mostly by the clergy, church choir, etc not of the average person and dangerously close to extinction. Any Christian knows it’s our lord’s spoken language.

I speak the “Chaldean” dialect, Jesus spoke the “Galilee” dialect nevertheless it’s the same exact language, same alphabet (22 letters), same words, same writing, same sentences, grammar, same exact book, text, etc. kinda like an Indian from Kerala Hindi speaker to a North Pakistan Hindi speaker.

Haven’t done much research in this area, my ancestors were the first Christian COMMUNITY in the world, when being a Christian was dangerous business. Yes my ancestors were evangelized by St Thomas himself, then en route to India and fairly sure St Thomas was accompanied by Aramaic speakers of Mesopotamia to spread the faith in India and beyond.

A couple weeks ago, I watched on YouTube a mass in INDIA fully in Aramaic ! Even had an entire choir of young Indian men and women not just speak it, but were singing hymns in Aramaic from a book

! If you’d like to look it up, just input here on YouTube (Chaldeans Aramaic India) and you’ll see plenty, some say up to 2 million Indians are Chaldeans or someway somehow the Aramaic language or something, sounds like a very high number, but again not so high considering India’s population of 1.2 B

It’s the same language spoken by Mel Gibson’s movie (2004) “passions of Christ” superb acting by Jim Caveziel and at the time it was the highest grossing movie ever. The sad part is they were shunned by Hollywood and the actor Caviziel knew he’d never find any acting work b/c of its controversial you know whom that influenced the Roman governor Pilate, there’s to be a sequel to come out in 2024 called the “resurrection”.

Peace ✌️ to all Indians regardless of faith, belief, sect, religion just so as long as it promotes, love, peace, forgiveness, patience, resilience and harmony amongst the masses.

[EngPheniks]

Madamji here got the point. When we say "Church", it's not building but a group of people. Today's believers needed to be reminded of this point.

[JKLM-nryo]

I live in Kerala. The origin of Christianity in India is well narrated.
👍

[tijojoseph]

As a Malayali Christian, I want to thank you for covering this.

[geethachandrasekar]

Good to know facts. Amazing to know that Christianity is so old in India. Well narrated. Thanks.

[kidflashclone]

This was phenomenal! After the inspiration of watching this video, I've decided to do a paper on this community for my university. You better believe this will be cited :) !!!

[KriseshVinay]

British brought Christianity in India❎.

St Thomas, The Apostle of Jesus Christ brought Christianity in India✅.

[melodytunes]

Thank you for doing this video. I am a Keralan Christian who lives abroad and I have to explain the church history because not a lot of people know the history even in the Christian circles. I am proud of my Indian Christian heritage 💕

[bethelprayerfellowship]

An Indian christian really happy for this brief history. Thank you so much.

[lazarusdevapriyam]

Thank you for sharing historical information of Christianity in India. I am from Church of the Nazarene in India. Let all Indians irrespective of religions, thank God for sending His disciple St.Thomas to India in AD52.

[kamble]

I come from an army background family. Have seen so many syro malabar Catholics in indian army. Thankyou for everything my dear indian catholic community. Right from setting up educational institutions to being such well behaved and progressive minority I have always loved you all. Jai Hind

[delbailondel]

I'm a Catholic from the Philippines. I learned that Christianity in India is older than the Christianity in my country because of St. Thomas the Apostle.

[sangeethtm]

Should have mentioned about 7.5 churches established by St. Thomas. As a descendant of St Thomas Malankara Orthodox Church, I’m so happy to see this video and suggest a bit more research to be done with Kerala christianity.

[latesttrending]

I'm proud to be Indian Christian 🙂

[sriramr]

As always there is always something unique to learn from StoryTrails video. Being in Chennai I am aware of St.Thomas and the early Christians of Kerala but never new the little details. Like how his remains were attempted to be taken to Europe and the fact that St Thomas is only one of three such churches built over the tomb of a saint. And ofcourse the clarity and tone of the narration is excellent 👌

[jonathanjoseph]

This video has to be shared in RSS Affiliated YT channels... They falsely call us rice bag convert 😂😂😂... What on earth is that terminology 😂

[MayureshKadu]

Love to story telling involved. Appreciate your effort in bringing these "stories" to us - you have our heartfelt thanks. I learnt something new today about Christianity and India.