THE PING!Posted on 01/10/2005 12:36:47 PM PST by It's me
CHENNAI (ICNS) – The tsunami waves have subsided, but a miracle is being talked about across Chennai. It is the story of how St Thomas’ miraculous post kept the invading waves away, sparing the newly renovated Santhome Cathedral.
The Cathedral, the world’s second basilica built on an apostle’s tomb, has been giving shelter to hundreds of tsunami victims ever since the waves ravaged many buildings across the coast.
But even though the killer tsunami waves devastated the Chennai coast, Father Lawrence Raj, the parish priest of the Santhome Cathedral Basilica, says “the sea did not touch our church.”
The reason? “We believe the miraculous post of St Thomas prevented the sea waters from entering the church,” says Father Raj.
The church that sits at the site where St. Thomas, one of the 12 Apostles of Jesus Christ, was buried after his death in the year 72 is located a few metres from the sea. While all the buildings on either side of the church were hit by the tsunami waves, the Santhome Cathedral remained unaffected.
Local people now say it is the St Thomas’ miraculous post that has kept the sea away on December 26.
According to Father Raj, the legend is that when St Thomas planted the post at the top of the steps leading to the Cathedral, he said the sea would not pass that point.
The priest saw from the terrace of church the angry sea in action, as it surged across the road and flooded the huts in front of St Thomas’ post, which is an innocuous looking log of wood, mounted on a cement pedestal.
The belief goes that a village in the Mylapore area was flooded when a huge tree trunk fell across the river. The local king brought a royal pachyderm to lug it away, but the task seemed impossible.
Then, according to legend, St Thomas came along, removed the girdle from his waist and handed it to a bystander and asked him to yank the log with it. He did so and the log was moved easily.
A mural in the Cathedral museum illustrates this incident. Father Raj says the current post is believed to be from that same log of wood.
Hundreds of homeless survivors who have been staying in the church ever since the tragedy hit them have prayed to St Thomas for saving them.
“It is St Thomas who has saved me. This church was untouched by the waters because of the miraculous power of the St Thomas post,” said K Sebastiraj, a fisherman who sought shelter in the Santhome Cathedral.
"Not even the 1st floor flooded?"
Apparently not.
“We believe the miraculous post of St Thomas prevented the sea waters from entering the church,” says Father Raj."
Do you kiss your mamma with that mouth?
Your (short) posting history reflects quite a bit of name calling and arrogance. Are you a DUer or just a lone-wolf troll?
THE PING!Very interesting. I had no idea any of he Apostles traveled as far as India.
bump
Amazing story. I found the story about the orphanage director loading the boat with children to be equally amazing.
A lot of Christians died in that tsunami.
Amazing picture. Life is full of beautiful mysteries
"It's just a quibble, but St. Peter's in Rome is not a Cathedral. Also, the article at the top of this thread is in error, as St. Paul's in Rome is also the tomb of an apostle."
Thank you for setting me straight on all this. I can honestly say I learned something worthwhile on FR today!
Do what Henry?
You're not kidding. I went back and read some previous posts. That guy talks like a 10 year-old trying to impress his 13 year-old brother.
That which is in bold is true but "The Church" is alive in all believers. The failure of the Reformation is that it recognized a Roman church that was hijacked into paganisn by pope Damasis in 378A.D. but that it did not reconnect the branch to its roots in Jewishness and the hope of Israel;
But the brothers Judah and Ephraim are beginning to recognize each other and will once again worship the true God in His way. Today I pray for the peace of Israel. Shalom
**rolls eyes**
Oh brother...us Catholics sure have it all wrong. I guess I'm going to have to block out some time to watch Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, and Jack Van Impe. I'll have to look into some of those pamplets in Baptist churches too...especially the one's about the "Death Cookie". Wouldn't want to do anything hazardous to my health dontchaknow.
Tell ya what. How about you go to that Cathedral and check the records of al the predecessors to the Archbishop there. They will go straight back to St. Thomas.
The Church died with John? So the gates of Hell prevailed then? You think Jesus lied?
"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt."
Never, in the history of language, has an assertion "proved" anything.
Sounds like ThoreauHD is calling for kitties to visit.
Now the Muslim terrorists will have to blow up the cathedral...
Thread drift! Thread drift!
"The failure of the Reformation is that it recognized a Roman church that was hijacked into paganisn by pope Damasis in 378A.D"
Brother yo are reading the wrong history books!
Uh, it is Pope Damasus who, um, well gave his opinion about which books should be in the New Testament of your Holy Bible, and later after the Church councils of Hippo (393), and Carthage (397) the Church (the bishops in UNION with a later Pope) ratified those SAME 27 books which Damasus gave as being the Holy inspired Word of God! (imagine that)
Search on Pope St. Damasus: "Pope Damasus was well versed in the sacred scriptures. The great scripture scholar St. Jerome, who was for a time the pope's secretary, bears witness to this. It was St. Damasus who commissioned Jerome to revise the then-current Latin text of the Bible. Before the pope died, St. Jerome was able to put into his hands the corrected New Testament. This became part of the "Vulgate" Bible that remained the official Latin Catholic version of the Church until recently."
Link: http://www.stthomasirondequoit.com/SaintsAlive/id244.htm
From New Advent: 2. The Roman Church, the Synod under Damasus, and St. Jerome
The Muratorian Canon or Fragment, composed in the Roman Church in the last quarter of the second century, is silent about Hebrews, James, II Peter; I Peter, indeed, is not mentioned, but must have been omitted by an oversight, since it was universally received at the time. There is evidence that this restricted Canon obtained not only in the African Church, with slight modifications, as we have seen, but also at Rome and in the West generally until the close of the fourth century. The same ancient authority witnesses to the very favourable and perhaps canonical standing enjoyed at Rome by the Apocalypse of Peter and the Shepherd of Hermas. In the middle decades of the fourth century the increased intercourse and exchange of views between the Orient and the Occident led to a better mutual acquaintance regarding Biblical canons and the correction of the catalogue of the Latin Church. It is a singular fact that while the East, mainly through St. Jerome's pen, exerted a disturbing and negative influence on Western opinion regarding the Old Testament, the same influence, through probably the same chief intermediary, made for the completeness and integrity of the New Testament Canon. The West began to realize that the ancient Apostolic Churches of Jerusalem and Antioch, indeed the whole Orient, for more than two centuries had acknowledged Hebrews and James as inspired writings of Apostles, while the venerable Alexandrian Church, supported by the prestige of Athanasius, and the powerful Patriarchate of Constantinople, with the scholarship of Eusebius behind its judgment, had canonized all the disputed Epistles. St. Jerome, a rising light in the Church, though but a simple priest, was summoned by Pope Damasus from the East, where he was pursuing sacred lore, to assist at an eclectic, but not ecumenical, synod at Rome in the year 382. Neither the general council at Constantinople of the preceding year nor that of Nice (365) had considered the question of the Canon. This Roman synod must have devoted itself specially to the matter. The result of its deliberations, presided over, no doubt, by the energetic Damasus himself, has been preserved in the document called "Decretum Gelasii de recipiendis et non recipiendis libris", a compilation partly of the sixth century, but containing much material dating from the two preceding ones. The Damasan catalogue presents the complete and perfect Canon which has been that of the Church Universal ever since.
Link: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03274a.htm
So THANK Pope Damasus pw! He gave you the New Testament portion of your Bible with gyuidance of the Holy Spirit!
Father Lawrence with the post in the background.
The Santhome miracle: A post between sea and church kept waves at bay
Catholic Ping - please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
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