Indian bishops tour shrines honoring St. Thomas, elephants

Published: 2004-01-15

PALAYUR, India (CNS) -- Nearly 150 Indian bishops and a Vatican official visited what many believe to be the 1,950-year-old birthplace of Christianity in India. They visited St. Thomas Church in Palayur, a small town in the Trichur Archdiocese, during a break in the Jan. 7-14 biennial assembly of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India, reported UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand. The bishops, whose meeting was held at a seminary in Trichur, also toured an elephant sanctuary on the grounds of a Hindu temple in Guruvayur. In Palayur, U.S. Archbishop John P. Foley, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications and a guest at the Indian bishops' meeting, told UCA News he was glad he could "see the beginning of the history of the church in India right here." St. Thomas the Apostle is believed to have landed in the year 52 on India's southwestern coast, in what is now Kerala state. Tradition holds that he made his first converts among Jews and Hindus living in Palayur, where he built and consecrated a small church with an altar.

Copyright (c) 2004 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .