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Relics of St.Thomas The National Shrine of St.Thomas Basilica is built over the tomb of Apostle St.Thomas. St.Thomas one of the twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ came to India in A.D.52, martyred in A.D.72 and was buried here in  Mylapore.
There are only three basilicas built over the tomb of an apostle. St.Peter's at Rome and St.Jame's at Spain (Compestella, Santiago)  are the other two.
There is an underground tomb chapel below the Basilica. His Holiness Pope John Paul II visited and prayed at this tomb on 5th February 1986.
St.Thomas who brought christianity to india is considered to be the Father of Indian Christianity.

This Week

Web TV or Internet TV
Santhome Basilica have started a Web TV for live telecasting of Holy Services for the benefit of
Internet patrons. This is operational and your patronage is solicited. Please click here.

Eye, Organ and Full body donation
St.Vincent de Paul Society, Santhome council, has started a drive for Eye, Organ and Full body donation. Forms are available at entrance of the Tomb chapel entrance security staff. Interested persons can fill up the forms and submit to Vincent de Paul society office on Sunday morning. Or to the security staff for onward transmission. Please convince  two of your close relatives to take the pledge.  Donor cards will be issued. 

Hymns book 
Basilica has published a Hymns book in English for the Holy Mass in English and other Holy services.
The book will be shortly available from the church office or stalls  against a donation of Rs.25/-.

Videos from the Basilica
Holy Masses and programmes are available live on the Santhome Live TV on www.santhomechurch.tv Old programmes are available on demand for the benefit of the devotees who missed it on those days. You may follow the link Santhome Videos to watch these programmes.

Charismatic Prayers
Tuesdays - 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tamil
Fridays    - 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.  English

Updates
Important Days in the Month of January
1-Jan-2012:  Mary, Mother of God
3-Jan-2012:  Holy Name of Jesus
8-Jan-2012:  Epiphany of the Lord
9-Jan-2012:  Baptism of the Lord

National Shrine status to St.Thomas Mount church - Church of Our Lady of Expectation
CCBI conference have conferred the status of National shrine on St.Thomas Mount church - on the top of the hill - Hill Shrine. This is the second church from Chennai to have this status. Earlier in 2006 CCBI conferred the same to our Santhome Basilica. 

Video on Apostle St.Thomas
The Basilica is planning to produce a Video on Apostle St.Thomas and the pilgrim centers of St.Thomas spread over the two states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Suggestions and informations on the project are invited.
Those who can sponsor may approach the Rector, Rev.Fr.S.Kanickairaj.

Twitter
Santhomechurch is now on Twitter. Follow through Twitter. See featured links.

Flickr- High resolution photos
We are uploading high resolution photos to Flickr for the journalism, printing and publishing industry. These photos are available under creative common licencse. You may download and publish it without any restriction or fee except to give credit to photographers name in your publication. Please click Flickr Photo link on the Main Menu on the left.

Marriage preparation course
(Read 'Wedding Preparation' link for contact details)

Mobile website : www.santhomechurch.com will be soon available for mobile devices like iPhone, Blackberry and smartphones with GPRS or web browsing facility. Beta version is up and you may access this through your mobile device at http://mobi.santhomechurch.com

Free download of Digital edition of the books
These are in pdf format , compatible to e-book readers(Amazon Kindle...), smartphones ( Blackberry, iPhone etc...) and iPad.
A Saga of Fatih  - Please click to download
In The Steps of St.Thomas  - Please click to download

Sunday Readings - 29th January 2012
Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Deuteronomy 18:15-20, 1 Corinthians 7: 32-35, Gospel  of Mark 1:21-28.

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This website registered more than one lakh eighty eight thousand ( One hundred and eighty eight thousand - for our USA patrons) hits during October 2011. Please continue to support our internet ministry. We thank you for your overwhelming support and forwarding the URL to your near and dear ones. Suggestions for improvement are welcome.