Date:18/08/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/mp/2003/08/18/stories/2003081800160300.htm

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A slice of history

ST.THOMAS arrived in India a little after 52 AD and drifted to Mailepuram (Mylapore).

When the Apostle was killed in Little Mount, his devotees buried him in a little chapel that he had built on the shores of Santhome. That chapel would keep expanding.

In the 10th Century, Nestorian Christians from Persia replaced it with a larger church and a tomb over the saint's grave. The Portuguese rebuilt it when they landed here in the 15th Century.

That wouldn't stay either. In 1896, it made way for the grand, Gothic-styled Santhome Cathedral Basilica that we have today.

It was termed a Basilica because of its history, antiquity and magnificence - unique for its Cross-shaped interior, at the centre of which lies the tomb of St.Thomas.