The story of the indigenous beginnings of Christianity in India is a tale of two Thomases. One, is St. Thomas, the ‘doubting’ disciple of Jesus Christ, who is believed to have visited India in 54 A.D. The other is Thomas of Cana, who led a migration of 72 Jewish-Christian families from Syria in 345 A.D. The descendants of these families are now called Knanaya.
That India was so connected to Jerusalem in those days was no coincidence. Indo-Roman trade peaked in the first century AD. The ancient trading port of Muziris – recently unearthed from historical ambiguity – is where St. Thomas is said to have landed.
The legendary journey of Jesus’ own disciple would make India among the first countries Christianity spread to – only decades after the death of Christ. St. Thomas’ journey is cited in the very beginning of the apocryphal Acts of Thomas, and mentions his initial reluctance to visit India, saying “I am a Hebrew man; how can I go among the Indians and preach the truth?” But every disciple had a region of the world to visit, and Thomas was consequently India-bound.
His route is believed to have taken him via boat from Palestine, down the Red Sea and across the Persian Fuld, until arriving at the port of Cranganore – Rome’s pepper-supplier in India.
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