a a: 
ae —— ee eee 
1923] St. Thomas and San Thomé, Mylapore. 217 
desert. ‘‘ This is the third best city which the Emperor of the 
Persians possesses in his whole realm. The Saracens say 2 
that no Christian is ever able to live in it beyond one 
And there be many emt preity Poe re.” CF. Yule, Cathay 
and the ie thither, Vol. 1, 
The Charabago of cs “Mardovilie must be Karabagh of 
Persia, built by Timur. 
170. 4. Oil from Church i still considered sacred at 
San Thomé. --COn January 17, 1923, as I was kneeling before 
the crypt of St. Thomas’ tomb at San Thome Cathedral, during 
my thanksgiving after Mass, I noticed that a small Tamil 
boy, whose mother had just received Holy sapere! oak was 
kneeling daily near the railing of the crypt, went to one of the 
lamps burning at the railing, en ae into the oil the #0 of his 
finger, oh touched himself with it in the centre of the fore- 
head, and then went to do the same to his mother, who went 
on with | her prayers in her praver-book, as if nothing were the 
matter. My mind flew back eight centuries, to Mar John IIT.’s 
Own curious days, though, doubtless, what I had witnessed was 
just a common practice all over Southern India among our Chris- 
tians, yet a practice connecting them somehow with the 
St. Thomas Christians of Malabar. A little later, a sacristan 
came with a tiny cup, took with it some of the oil in the burning 
lamps, and carried it off to the sacristy, evidently for some 
person or other who had asked for it. Greatly interested, 
I counted the lamps at the brass railing (four of them, with 
ie a for another four), and I noted the occurrence in my 
diary 
P. 173. ¥ Receiving Holy Communion from the hands of 
images.—The Emperor Michael II. (820-829), in his letter to 
Louis the Pious, describes the excesses of the im age worship- 
pers: ‘‘ They have removed the holy cross from the praeee: 
and replaced it by images before which they burn ine 
They sing ae before these I AReS prostrate themselves 
. usi 
n image as an altar.’ (Mansi, XIV, 414-422, Hefele-Leclerq, 
IIL 2,612.) Cf. Cath. Encycl., New York. VU. 668 b.c 
P. 174. 6. The earth taken from St. Tiimas? tomb was 
found replaced the next day. —Compare with a statement in Sir 
John de Mandeville. ‘“And there nigh [the City of Acre in 
