which is mentioned by Marco Polo and is regarded as the tomb of St. Thomas, the first Christian apostle to India.
Nestorian Christians upon the whole follow the ritual of the Greek Church. Part of them united later on with the Roman Church and are now commonly called United Nestorians. Their patriarch calls himself Mar Joseph and his residence is Diarbekr, the ancient Amida in the valley of the upper Tigris. The others who have remained independent recognize as their Catholicus, a patriarch who bears the name Mar Simeon, residing at Kotchannas near Julamerk in the upper valley of the greater Zab, in the territory of the Hakkiare, a tribe of the Kurds. They are strongly under Russian influence and it is not impossible that in time they will join the Greek Church.
At present the Nestorians are weak in numbers and influence. They may not be more than one hundred and fifty thousand souls, but in former days they were a flourishing Church, and for a time it seemed as if Nestorian Christianity would be the state religion of Tibet.
From Tibet Nestorian Christianity spread even into China where it was welcomed by the emperor and had a fair chance of competing with Buddhism and Confucianism for supremacy. It is still an unsolved problem how this once so powerful Church could disappear without leaving a trace in the minds of the people . We do not yet know in detail how Nestorianism lost its hold on the Tibetans and the Chinese. We would scarcely believe how influential they once were in the center of Asia had not a happy accident brought to light that remarkable slab which bears witness to former Nestorian activity in China. P. C.
