User:Jijithnr/Historicity of St Thomas
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This article is about the historicity of St.Thomas, one of the 12 Apostles of Jesus Christ. For St.Thomas according to the dominant Christian mythology, see Thomas the Apostle page.
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St.Thomas as per Christian tradition was the twin brother of Jesus Christ and is traditionally counted as one among the 12 apostles of Jesus. He is perhaps best known for disbelieving Jesus' resurrection when first told of it, similar to the Islamic point of view. He is also known as Judas Thomas, Doubting Thomas, or Didymus (meaning 'the twin' in Greek). He is also known as the Apostle of the 'Circumcision'. Thomas is revered as a saint in the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches. There is no uniformity among Christians on the date of the feast day of St. Thomas. Earlier St. Thomas feast day was celebrated in December 21, the winter solstice day which was an important festival day in pagan cultures worldwide. It was a common Christian practice to abolish pagan festivals and replace it with feasts of famous figures of Christianity, as part of the Incultration process, where the target culture is digested and destroyed. Later December 21 became the feast day of St. Peter Canisius and the feast day of St. Thomas was moved to 3 July. For the Eastern Orthodox, Eastern Catholic Churches and the Coptic Orthodox Church he is remembered each year on Saint Thomas Sunday, which falls on the Sunday after Easter. In addition, the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic churches celebrate his feast day on October 6 (for those churches which follow the traditional Julian Calendar, October 6 currently falls on October 19 of the modern Gregorian Calendar). He is also commemorated in common with all of the other apostles on July 30 (August 13), in a feast called the Synaxis of the Holy Apostles. He is also associated with the "Arabian" (or "Arapet") Icon of the Theotokos (Mother of God), which is commemorated on September 6 (September 19).