Santhome is a locality in

Mylapore Mylapore, also spelt Mayilapur, is a neighbourhood in the central part of the city of Chennai, India. It is one of the oldest residential parts of the city. It is also called Tirumayilai. The locality is claimed to be the birthplace of the cel ...

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

city (formerly

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

) in India.

History

The word ''Santhome'' or ''San Thome'' is derived from Saint Thomas. The tradition is that he was

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

ed in AD 72 at St.Thomas Mount in the city, and was interred in

. Later a church was built over his supposed tomb and today is known as the

San Thome Basilica San Thome Church, officially known as St Thomas Cathedral Basilica and National Shrine of Saint Thomas, is a minor basilica of the Catholic Church in India, at the Santhome neighbourhood of Madras (Chennai), in Tamil Nadu. The present structure ...

. The

Basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its nam ...

is one of the three churches that claim to have been built over the tomb of an apostle. (Others include St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, Italy; the Church of

Saint James the Great James the Great, also known as James, son of Zebedee, Saint James the Great, Saint James the Greater, Saint James the Elder, or Saint Jacob (Aramaic ܝܥܩܘܒ ܒܪ ܙܒܕܝ, Arabic يعقوب, Hebrew בן זבדי , '' Yaʿăqōḇ'', Latin '' ...

Santiago de Compostela Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city has its origin in the shrine of Saint James the Great, now the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, as the destination of the Way of S ...

, Spain.)

St. Thomas Tomb

After

Thomas the Apostle Thomas the Apostle ( arc, 𐡀𐡌𐡅𐡕𐡌, hbo, תוֹמא הקדוש or תוֹמָא שליחא (''Toma HaKadosh'' "Thomas the Holy" or ''Toma Shlikha'' "Thomas the Messenger/Apostle" in Hebrew-Aramaic), syc, ܬܐܘܡܐ, , meaning "twi ...

landed in

Calicut Kozhikode (), also known in English as Calicut, is a city along the Malabar Coast in the state of Kerala in India. It has a corporation limit population of 609,224 and a metropolitan population of more than 2 million, making it the second ...

and preached about

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and relig ...

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South Ca ...

, he came to

and preached about Jesus and was killed in AD 72 in St. Thomas Mount and possibly buried in

(presently Santhome). And as History a small and simple structure (church) was built over the tomb of Saint Thomas the Apostle by his disciples in AD 72. Saint Thomas tomb

In AD 1521 the tomb was renovated by Portuguese missionaries and built a church over the tomb. After the tomb of Saint Thomas the apostle was renovated the relic of Apostle was firstly shown in the church. And the body of Apostle was took into the town as grand procession in Santhome and Mylapore and again buried in the center of Santhome Church in 1523 after the church was opened. In 1545 Saint Francis Xavier visited the church and stayed for nearly 11 months and he often prayed in the tomb and celebrated Eucharist Mass in the main church. In 1729 the tomb was first opened to the public.

Santhome Church

The Portuguese explorers came to Mylapore in 1500, they saw the tomb of St.Thomas as small abandoned structure and they decided to build a church in that same place, in 1522 they started building the church with the order of King

John III of Portugal John III ( pt, João III ; 7 June 1502 – 11 June 1557), nicknamed The Pious ( Portuguese: ''o Piedoso''), was the King of Portugal and the Algarves from 1521 until his death in 1557. He was the son of King Manuel I and Maria of Aragon, the ...

and opened in 1523. And they named the east coast of Mylapore as Santhome were the church is located. In 1893 British decided to rebuild the church with the status of Cathedral and opened in 1896. Later on the church became

and National Shrine of India. And also referred to be "International Shrine". It is a very important church in the world and most visited site in Chennai. Now it is known as "National Shrine of St. Thomas Cathedral Basilica" or "Santhome Church" built over the holy tomb of Saint Thomas the Apostle. The glory and dignity of St. Thomas shown in this Cathedral Basilica Church.

Battle of St Thomé

During the

First Carnatic War The First Carnatic War (1740–1748) was the Indian theatre of the War of the Austrian Succession and the first of a series of Carnatic Wars that established early British dominance on the east coast of the Indian subcontinent. In this conflict ...

, after the French captured

Fort St George Fort St. George (or historically, White Town) is a fortress in the coastal city of Chennai, India. Founded in 1639, it was the first English (later British) fortress in India. The construction of the fort provided the impetus for further ...

from the British, the

Nawab of the Carnatic The Carnatic Sultanate was a kingdom in South India between about 1690 and 1855, and was under the legal purview of the Nizam of Hyderabad, until their demise. They initially had their capital at Arcot in the present-day Indian state of Tamil N ...

, Anwaruddin Muhammed Khan, expected the town to be handed over to him as overlord. Anwaruddin responded by sending a 10,000 man army under Mahfuz Kahn, his son, to take the fort from Dupleix by force forcing him to move south. Khan seized Santhome and formed a battle line on the north bank of the Adyar River on 22 October to prevent the French from moving up reinforcements from

Pondicherry Pondicherry (), now known as Puducherry ( French: Pondichéry ʊdʊˈtʃɛɹi(listen), on-dicherry, is the capital and the most populous city of the Union Territory of Puducherry in India. The city is in the Puducherry district on the sout ...

. When Kahn's forces approached the walls however, the garrison's gunnery compelled them to retire. French Governor-General

Joseph François Dupleix Joseph Marquis Dupleix (23 January 1697 – 10 November 1763) was Governor-General of French India and rival of Robert Clive. Biography Dupleix was born in Landrecies, on January 23, 1697. His father, François Dupleix, a wealthy ''fermier gé ...

sent a relief force from Pondicherry that met Khan's army at the Adyar River. Although the French had only 300 troops, in the

Battle of Adyar The Battle of Adyar (also the Battle of Adyar River) took place on 24 October 1746. The battle was between the French East India Company men and Nawab of Arcot forces over the St. George Fort, which was held by the French. It was part of the Fir ...

they executed a bold attack that drove the Nawab's forces into the town. The French then expelled them and forced them to retreat towards Arcot. By this action the French ceased being suppliants to the local ruler.

Santhome now

Santhome has some premier educational institutions. Hence, it became an administrative capital locality of the Archdiocese of Madras-Mylapore. These include Rosary Matriculation School, St. Bedes A. I. Hr. Sec. School, Santhome Higher Secondary school, St. Raphel's School and Dominic Savio Matric. School. The official residence of the Archbishop of the Madras - Mylapore Archdiocese is in Santhome adjacent to the Basilica. The consulates of Russia and Spain are also in this area. The Santhome High Road stretches from the light house side of the famous Marina beach and goes through in front of St. Thomas basilica towards Adyar.

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