St. Thomas Mount
The St. Thomas Mount ( Tamil : புனித தோமையர் மலை ; also Parangimalai , Tamil: பரங்கிமலை ) is a hill in the suburb of the same name of Chennai (Madras), the capital of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu . It owes its name to the Christian apostle Thomas , who is said to have been martyred here. The 67 meter high St. Thomas Mount is located south of the city near Chennai Airport .
According to tradition, the apostle Thomas moved to India after the death of Jesus. The Thomas Christians on the Malabar Coast trace their story back to Thomas's mission. Thomas is said to have moved from the Malabar coast to Mylapore (now a district of Chennais) and settled in a cave on Little Mount around four kilometers east of St. Thomas Mount. In 72 he was killed with a spear on St. Thomas Mount. After that he is said to have been buried in Mylapore at the place where the St. Thomas Basilica is today .
On the summit of St. Thomas Mount is the Church of Our Lady of Expectation , which the Portuguese built in 1523 on the site of an old Nestorian church visited by Marco Polo in 1293 . In the 18th century the church was expanded under the patronage of Armenian traders. In the church there is a stone cross with a Middle Persian inscription, which was probably placed on the site in the 8th century. There is an ascent of 200 steps up the hill.
Administratively, St. Thomas Mount belongs to the garrison town ( cantonment ) of St. Thomas Mount-cum-Pallavaram in the Kanchipuram district . Since the city expansion in 2011, it has been an enclave within the urban area of Chennai. The St. Thomas Mount train station is 1.2 kilometers south of St. Thomas Mount as the crow flies and is served by the Chennaier suburban railway , the Chennai metro and, in the future, the MRTS elevated railway .
Web links
- Imperial Gazetteer of India. London 1908. Keyword: Saint Thomas Mount . Volume 21, pp. 387-389
- NT Blog: St Thomas Mount (blog post by Mark Goodacre )
Coordinates: 13 ° 0 ′ 18 ″ N , 80 ° 11 ′ 37 ″ E