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Notes
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In Christian times this patriarch has not lacked honours. The Roman and other martyrologies (calendars of saints) give him a niche under date of the 10th May:—
"Sancti Job prophetæ, admirandæ patientiæ viri."
A liturgical office for the day is found in some missals. Altars, chapels, and churches were dedicated to him in Venice, Antwerp and Louvain. Many hospitals have been placed under his patronage.
S. THOMAS, APOSTLE
S. Thomas is well known to us from the Gospels. In his 20th chapter the Evangelist John tells us of his doubt concerning the reality of our Lord's resurrection and the setting of those doubts at rest by the condescension of Christ, who permitted him to touch and examine the wounds inflicted during the Passion. The incidents which occupy the text of the Golden Legend have their earliest source (so far as is known) in the Acta Thomæ, a romantic composition written (probably) in Syriac about the beginning of the third century.
24.
6. The tradition that S. Thomas carried the preaching of the Gospel as far as Hindostan has much to support it. King "Gundoferus" was an historical personage. About the year a.d. 46 a king was reigning over that part of Asia comprised in the modern Afghanistan, Baluchistan, the Punjaub and Sind, who bore the name Gondophernes or Guduphara: we know this from his coins, and from an inscription at Takhti-Bahi. A body of Christians has existed in India from very early ages, which has always claimed S. Thomas as their founder, and there is some traditional evidence of his having suffered martyrdom at Mylapore in the district of Madras.
23. "The King would be angry." Like the king in the Gospel (Luke xiv.), when the invited guests offered excuses for not attending his great marriage feast.
26. The praising of guests, especially distinguished ones, by minstrels at a feast is an old custom in many lands. It might seem an anticipation of our modern complimentary after-dinner speeches. Cp. the greeting of Marmion by the ministrels at Norham:
And there, with herald pomp and state,
They hailed Lord Marmion:
They hailed him Lord of Fontenaye, . . .
Of Tamworth tower and town.
