ABSTRACT
In the middle of my work in the Carnat Mission I was suddenly summoned to St. Thomas [Saint Thomé] by Monsignore Pinheiro, of the Society of Jesus, bishop of Meliapùr. He deputed me to take the minutes of the trial instituted by him, auctoritate Apostolica, to Rome, for the canonisation as a martyr of the Venerable Father Giovanni de Britto of our Society, who had been barbarously martyred, impaled and beheaded by the Idolators in the Kingdom of Maravà. 15 In the middle of December I therefore went to the city of St. Thomas, otherwise Meliapùr, and although our Society had a college there Monsignor Pinheiro insisted on my staying in the Episcopal Palace until the trial of the case was over. One day I had the honour to celebrate Mass in the adjacent chapel annexed to the cathedral where it is said St. Thomas the Apostle lived for some time. The head of the lance with which he was killed is kept there and several other relics. I was also much comforted by visiting the Little and the Big Hills about two leagues from the city. The Little Hill is a rugged, not very high cliff, up which a good path was made about 1561 for the convenience of the Faithful who came to pray in the church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin half way up the hill. Under the high altar is a cavern about fourteen feet wide and fifteen or sixteen deep. It is seven feet in height in the centre, and the only, and difficult, entrance is by a cleft in the rock about five feet high and one and a half wide. The cavern and the entrance have not been touched because of the conviction that St. Thomas the Apostle often retired there to pray. At the top of the rock is a small hermitage built by our Fathers, and the Church of the Resurrection. On the rock under the high altar is sculptured a cross about a foot high, exactly like the one of the Big Hill, which changes colour and sweats at the same time. Near the high altar is the well of St. Thomas. Moved to compassion by the suffering from thirst of the people who came to hear his sermons, he touched the rock with his staff as he prayed, and a fountain of clear water gushed forth; it is still used as a remedy for divers maladies. The Big Hill is only half a league from the Little one, and about four times larger and higher. Lately Malabarese, Portuguese, Armenians, and many English have built fine houses at its foot. When the European ships leave Madrastá, half the inhabitants pass months in this new city. On the top of the hill is a church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, called Our Lady of the Hill. This is the most notable edifice in this part of India; people, that is to say, the Christians devoted to St. Thomas who inhabit the mountains of Malabar, travel a good two hundred leagues to visit the sanctuary. They are under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Sena, who is appointed by the King of Portugal. The present Archbishop is Monsignore de Vasconcellos, Missionary of the Society of Jesus in Malabar, well versed in the native tongue and more especially in Syriac, which is the written and learned language. The liturgy of the Malabar priests called Cassanar is in Syriac. These Cassanar are the parish priests who live in those hills, where there are more than a hundred thousand Christians. Some are schismatic, but many are in communion with the Roman Catholic Church since the beginning of last century, thanks to Don Alexius Menezes, then Bishop of Goa, who held the famous Council at Diamper [1599] whose acts were printed later in Lisbon. 16
