Today is the Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle, my favorite apostle (with the possible exception of St. Peter). St. Thomas, of course, is most well-known for his disbelief of the Lord’s Resurrection. Yet we have a number of other bits of information about him that help us to have a better picture of his personality than most of the other apostles.

In John’s Gospel especially we get instructive snippets of this great man. When Jesus tells the apostles that he is going to Lazarus, even though it will be very dangerous for him to go towards Jerusalem, Thomas says to the rest of the apostles (one of the few times we see anyone other than Peter “leading” the apostolic college), “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” (John 11:16). Later, at the Last Supper, when Jesus tells the apostles that they know the way to the place he is going, Thomas replies, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” to which Jesus famously responds, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:5-6). And, most significantly, after Christ’s post-resurrection appearance to Thomas, the apostle cries out the greatest declaration of Christ’s divinity in the New Testament: “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28).

St. John Chrysostom said about Thomas:

“Thomas, being once weaker in faith than the other apostles, toiled through the grace of God more bravely, more zealously and tirelessly than them all, so that he went preaching over nearly all the earth, not fearing to proclaim the Word of God to savage nations.”

Thomas became a great missionary to the East, and in fact, we have more information about his post-resurrection activities than any apostle save Peter, James and John. Tradition tells us that he traveled as far as India and planted a church there – a church which still exists to this day.

You were a disciple of Christ
And a member of the divine college of Apostles.
Having been weak in faith you doubted the Resurrection of Christ.
But by feeling the wounds you believed in His all-pure passion:
Pray now to Him, O all-praised Thomas to grant us peace and great mercy.
Troparion for Holy, Glorious Apostle Thomas

St. Thomas, pray for us who are weak in faith!

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