Saint Thomas the Apostle, who is also called Didymus, which means twin, was the great and outstanding apostle to the East after the death and resurrection of Our Lord. Persia and India both learned the true message of the Catholic Faith from this heroic and courageous soldier of the truth. It was Saint Thomas who baptized the Magi, in the year 40. In the year 58, he was miraculously transported back to Jerusalem, on the third day after Our Lady’s death. It was his love for Mary and his eagerness to open her grave and see her body that revealed to all the Apostles and those gathered with him that she had been assumed into Heaven. Saint Thomas was martyred by being stabbed to death. His body is now reverently and lovingly kept in the town of Ortona in Italy.
Saint Thomas was the same age as Our Lord. He was seventy-four years old when he died in the year 74 A.D. Saint John, the youngest of the Apostles, was eighteen when he was called, twelve years younger than Our Lord, and died in the year 100 at the age of eighty-eight. Saint James the Less was the oldest of the Apostles. He was sixty-five when he was called and ninety-six when he died in the year 62.
The Incredulity of Saint Thomas, by Caravaggio (1571–1610) source
