BIOGRAPHICAL GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVI, Issue 32, 15 December 1898, Page 31

BIOGRAPHICAL GLEANINGS FOR NEXT WEEK'S CALENDAR.

(Written for the N.Z. Tablet.) December IS, Sunday.— Fourth of Advent. „ 19, Monday. — Blessed Urban V, Pope and Confessor. „ 20, Tuesday.— Vigil of St. Thomas. „ 21. Wednesday. — St. Thomas, Apostle. „ 22, Thursday. — St, Deusdedit, Pope and Confessor. „. 23, Friday. — St. Columbanus. „ 24, Saturday. — Vigil of Christmas. ST. THOMAS, APOSTLE. The Apostle St. Thomas was a Jew by birth, and probably a fisherman by trade. He had the happiness of being called by our Lord to the Apostolate during the first year of his public preaching, and he had the greater happiness of responding faithfully to the call. His love for his Divine Master increased daily in his heart, and he was ready to prove it even by the sacrifice of his life. Thus, when Jesus was going up to Jerusalem to raise Lazarus to life, and some of his disciples tried to dissuade him because the Jews were conspiring to kill him, Thomas said to his companions, ' Let us also go that we may die with him, 1 a noble and generous exhortation coming straight from a heart in -which, even before the day of Pentecost, the love of Jesus reigned supreme. Even in the best of men there often lingers a certain pride of judgment, which obscures their minds and renders them occasionally obstinate and self-opinionated. So was it -with St. Thomas. When our Blessed Lord appeared to His Apostles, assembled together with closed doors on Easter Sunday, it happened that St. Thomas was absent. Hearing afterwards from his brethren what had occurred, he did not believe them, presuming no doubt that they were under some delusion. ' Except,' said he, ' I shall see in Hia hands the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.' On the following Sunday Jesus again appeared to His Apostles when they were all assembled together, and Thomas with them. After greeting them with His usual salutation, ' Peace be to you, 1 He turned to Thomas and said, ' Put in thy finger and see my hands, and bring hither tby hand and put it into my side, and be not faithless but believing. Thomas answered and said to Him, 'My Lord and my God.' Jesus saith to him, ' Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen and have believed.' Our Blessed Lord took occasion of the incredulity of St. Thomas to afford to mankind the strongest possible proof of the reality of His Resurrection. Whence St. Gregory the Great remarks that ' by the doubting of St. Thomas we are more confirmed in our belief than by the faith of the other Apostles.' After the descent of the Holy Ghost and dispersion of the Apostles, St. Thomas preached the Faith in Persia and the neighbouring countries. There is little doubt that he penetrated as far as India, where a number of Christians have always continued to exist who ascribe the conversion of their forefathers to the labours of this Apostle and go by the name of ' St. Thomas's Christians.' It is a cmwtnnt tradition tnat he suffered martyrdom at Meliapor, on the coast of Coromandel. and that he was slain with a lance by order o the Kinyr ot that country in consequence of the conversion by St. Thomas of certain members of the royal family. A church was afterwards erected over the tomb of the Apostle in the place of his manyrdom, which is still vihited with great devotion by numerous pilgrims.