|
Home >
Chennai Home
>
Places To See
>
Near the international
Airport is a small hillock where St. Thomas, the noble
missionary was assassinated and thus the Mount was named St.
Thomas Mount after him.
The Mount
Between the 14th and 15th centuries, the church fell to ruins
and thus the Portuguese moved the remains of the Saint to a
new tomb and built a new Church. However in 1893 the Church
was demolished again and a new Cathedral was built in 1896,
which exists even today. In 1956 the Cathedral was elevated
to the status of Basilica as a tribute to the Martyred St.
Thomas. He preached and travelled the Malabar Coast and
Coromandel Coast of the country.
St. Thomas was a highly respectable personality in Tamil Nadu.
He was very popular in South of India somewhere between the
52 and 72 AD. It is said that he used to live in a cave on a
hill. He spent the last years of his life at a small hill
that is known as the Little Mount area of today. He believed
to have been played foul of the authorities. He escaped from
his cave to take shelter on a nearby hill, but here he was
shot by an arrow and died. Since then the Hill where he had
died has become St. Thomas Mount.
|
|
