07/03/2020 – St Thomas Feast Day

Today is normally the feast of the Apostle Thomas.

When we think of him, we think of the “doubting Thomas” of Mercy Sunday, or of the great apostle to India. But many legends that come to us through the centuries, link St Thomas to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin. (The Fourth Glorious Mystery of the Rosary)

The legends recall that the apostles were interiorly summoned from their various mission fields to come to Ephesus to see the Blessed Mother one last time.As they arrived to John’s home they were able to spend time with Mary, who as nurturer of the infant Church gave them great encouragement in their respective missions.

Thomas alone did not arrive in time. At this point the legends diverge. One legend holds that the Virgin Mary, aware of Thomas’ sceptical nature, appeared to him individually and dropped the girdle (belt, cincture) she was wearing down onto him, to give him a physical proof of the vision he had seen of her Assumption.

Another tells us that Thomas alone actually witnessed the Assumption, and the Virgin left the belt as a proof for his story to the other apostles.

Still another, relates that when he arrived he asked the mourning apostles to bring him to Our Lady’s tomb and open it so he could see her one last time and that it was because of this that they found the tomb empty and full of miraculous blooms. At this moment they were inspired with a certainly of her Assumption into Heaven.

Though we won’t know the veracity of the legends in this life. We can include this apostle in our meditation on the Fourth Glorious Mystery of the Rosary.