1 Saint Thomas, Missionary Apostle to India The Acts of Thomas is an early third-century attestation of a missionary narrative in the Syriac tradition that attributes the conversion of India to Saint Thomas, the apostle known as Jesus’s twin (John 20:24).1 In this extended apocryphal narrative, Christ commissions Judas Thomas to travel to India to convert its people.2 Thomas journeys there by way of the trade routes as a servant enslaved to merchants. The Acts of Thomas has received much scholarly attention and is the subject of several full-length studies, notably those of A. F. J. Klijn, J. Bremmer, and H. J. W. Drijvers.3 The text appears to have been written in Syriac, but was almost immedi- ately translated into Greek, and then was translated into Syriac again.4 Scholars examine this text from a variety of angles, ranging from the history of early Syrian asceticism to the text’s influence in Manichaean circles. Scholars have described the text as Gnostic, Encratite, Manichaean, or anti-Manichaean. J. W. Childers notes that different recensions do reflect particular theological tendencies.5 The earlier scholarly tendency, however, to characterize the Acts as “Gnostic” may derive from Western scholars’ lack of acquaintance with the unique traits of early Syriac Christianity.6 Many stories about Saint Thomas from late antiquity have survived, but the Acts of Thomas is unique in its influence on subsequent sacred fictions. It presents the Christian missionary life as one of sacrifice, itinerancy, asceticism, and imita- tion of Christ. The Acts of Thomas enshrines the symbol of the missionary apostle in Syriac religious memory. In the late antique world the narrative spread an account of imaginary conversions of mythic places on the road to India. And the symbol of the missionary struck a chord in the cultures of the Christian East, within both the Roman Empire and the Sasanian milieu. The text’s widespread 17 Saint - 9780520284968.indd 17 16/02/15 6:34 PM 18 Saint Thomas, Missionary Apostle to India dissemination and translation attest to its popularity in late antiquity. While the authors of subsequent missionary stories studied in this book may not intention- ally imitate the Acts of Thomas in their hagiographies, it is clear that the Acts of Thomas gave power to the symbol of the missionary saint. PRÉCIS The Acts of Thomas contains thirteen chapters that depict India’s conversion to Christianity through the apostle Thomas. As it is longer than any other text included in this book, I summarize the narrative here. Readers familiar with the story may wish to pass over this section. The section divisions in parentheses cor- respond to Klijn’s commentary and translation of the Syriac text. The [First] Act of Judas Thomas, the Apostle: Jesus assigns each apostle an area of the world to convert. The lot of India falls to Thomas, his slave (1.1).7 Jesus sells Thomas to the merchant Habban to be a carpenter for King Gundaphorus (1.2).8 Thomas and Habban set out for India, and they reach Sandaruk (1.3).9 Thomas attends a banquet of the king in honor of the princess’s wedding, but he abstains from eating, anointing himself, and praying. A Hebrew flute girl notices him (1.4). A cupbearer slaps Thomas [now called “Judas”] for not celebrating. Thomas sings a song in Hebrew that describes the church as a bride of light, with the apostles as groomsmen (1.6–7). The Hebrew flute girl recognizes the words he sings, and the cupbearer is torn apart by a lion (1.8). The flute girl proclaims that Thomas is either God or his apostle (1.9). Thomas prays over the princess bride and the bridegroom, and the prayer contains a Christological proclamation (1.10). When the bride and bridegroom are about to consummate their marriage, Jesus appears to the bride in the form of Thomas (1.11). Jesus persuades the couple to abstain from the sickness, death, and torment that he associates with sex and childrearing, and they agree (1.12). This scandalizes the king and queen (1.13). The girl explains to her parents that she is wed to a heavenly bridegroom, Christ (1.14). The groom praises Christ, who has shown him his true self (1.15). The king is furious, and he chases the apostle out of his kingdom, but the apostle continues his journey in India (1.16). The Second Act: Thomas and Habban the merchant reach India and King Gundaphorus. Thomas identifies himself as a carpenter, and he agrees to build a palace for the king (2.17–18). But Thomas instead gives the money for the palace to the poor (2.19). People report back to the king that Thomas is giving the money to the indigent, teaching them about Christianity, and practicing acts of ascetic piety: fasting, prayer, and Saint - 9780520284968.indd 18 16/02/15 6:34 PM Saint Thomas, Missionary Apostle to India 19 almsgiving (2.20). Thomas tells the king that he has built him a palace in heaven, and the king arrests Thomas and the merchant (2.21). The brother of the king, Gad, dies, his soul is taken to heaven, and he sees the palace that Thomas’s acts of charity have built (2.22). Gad returns from heaven in order to tell his brother about the heavenly palace (2.23). The king realizes his mistake, frees Thomas and the merchant, and asks for Thomas’s forgiveness (2.24). Judas prays a gift of thanksgiving (2.25). The entire community rejoices and prays together and prepares for baptism (2.26). Thomas pours oil over their heads, prays to the Holy Spirit, baptizes them, and then at dawn they share in the Eucharist (2.27). Thomas preaches to the newly baptized (2.28). Thomas shares a meal with his disciples, and they head off on the road together, according to Christ’s instruction (2.29). The Third Act: On the road, Thomas sees a dead boy (3.30). A snake appears and tells Thomas that he lusted after a girl whom the [dead] boy had loved. The snake watched the two youths have sex, and then killed the boy (3.31). The snake identifies himself as the son of Satan (3.32). Thomas commands the snake to suck the poison from the dead youth, and the snake obeys. The boy comes back to life, and the snake bursts (3.33). The youth praises Christ, and Thomas encourages him (3.34–36). The entire community converts to Christianity and praises Thomas as the apostle of the living God (3.37). The Fourth Act: The colt, speaking as a man, instructs the apostle to sit upon him, so that the he can carry the apostle the way his ancestor carried Christ. He identifies himself a descendant of Balaam’s ass (4.39–40). The ass carries Thomas into the city (4.41). The Fifth Act: Thomas exorcises a woman whom demons had raped (5.41–46). Thomas praises Jesus, he baptizes the woman, and then they share in the Eucharist (5.47–49). The Sixth Act: A young man who fornicates with his girlfriend is unable to receive the Eucharist because he killed his girlfriend when she would not convert to Christianity with him (6.50). The young man repents and is purified by Thomas’s prayer and ritual (6.51). Thomas and the crowd of people then go in search of the young woman, and they pray over her (6.52). Thomas raises her from the dead by invoking Jesus’s name (6.53). The resurrected girl gives a description of the underworld, a smelly place, where the chaste are separated from fornicators (6.54). Thomas uses her warning as an admonition for all the newly baptized (6.55–58). All the people surrender themselves to the living God and commit themselves to care of the poor and widows (6.59–60). Thomas’s prayer equates discipleship with “becoming a stranger” for the sake of Christ (6.61). Saint - 9780520284968.indd 19 16/02/15 6:34 PM 20 Saint Thomas, Missionary Apostle to India The Seventh Act: The general of India approaches Thomas that he might help his wife and daughter whom a violent man attacked (6.64). Thomas entrusts a deacon, Xanthippus, to care for the community, and the apostles continues on the road with the general. The Eighth Act: The general and Thomas are aided by wild asses who bow down to them and are willingly yoked to help the apostle and the general (8.69–70). They find the general’s wife and daughter, and Thomas orders the ass to instruct the demon to leave the wife and daughter of the general (8.73–74). Thomas drives the demon out of the women (8.75–77). All are amazed to hear the preaching of the wild ass and the apostle’s healings (8.78–81). The Ninth Act: Thomas and the general reach the home of Mygdonia, a kinsperson of the king, and Thomas comforts the servants of those who work for Mygdonia and her husband (9.82–84). Thomas presents an extended homily on holiness (9.85–86) and humility (9.86). Mygdonia falls at Thomas’s feet and begs to become a Christian and transform her body into a holy temple of the Spirit (9.87). Thomas tells Mygdonia to rise, turn away from bodily adornments, turn away from earthly marriage, and worship Christ alone (9.88). Mygdonia pulls away from her husband Karish, resisting his company and refusing to eat with him (9.89–92). Mygdonia continues to receive instruction from Thomas (9.93–94). Her husband is angry that she spends so much time with Thomas, whom she calls a “physician of the soul” and whom he calls a “sorcerer” and a “stranger” (9.95). Karish’s resentment builds as his wife refuses to eat and have sex with him (9.96). Mygdonia prays for support, and she refuses her husband’s sexual advances (9.97–98). Her husband Karish weeps and seeks that the king, Mazdai, avenge the apostle (9.99–102). Mygdonia bemoans her situation to the apostle (9.103). The king has his men hunt after Thomas, they apprehend Thomas, and they put him in jail for sorcery and reviling the king (9.105–6). While in prison, Thomas prays and poetically recounts the Hymn of the Pearl (9.106–13). Mygdonia is tortured and inconsolable, and she is unmoved by her husband’s pleas for her love. She confesses to her husband her commitment to Jesus and continence (9.114–17). The Tenth Act: Mygdonia prepares for baptism and the Eucharist (10.119–20). Thomas anoints her and baptizes her, Karish makes her choose between him and Jesus, and she professes her fidelity to Christ (10.121–24). The king and Mazdai reproach Thomas again (10.125–30). Thomas preaches about the glory of baptism (10.131–32). Thomas shares in the Eucharist with the general and his daughters (10.133). Saint - 9780520284968.indd 20 16/02/15 6:34 PM Saint Thomas, Missionary Apostle to India 21 The Eleventh Act: The queen Tertia goes to comfort Mygdonia, and Mygodonia tells Tertia about the wonders of Christianity (11.136). Tertia is then equally elated about Christianity, and Mazdai is infuriated at the apostle. Both Mazdai and Karish go to the house of the general and physically assault Thomas (11.137). The Twelfth Act: Vizan, the prince, speaks with Thomas sympathetically, and the king subjects the apostle to ordeals. God brings a flood upon the king (12.141). Judas and the community of new Christians pray together in prison (12.142–49). The Thirteenth Act: Vizan, the prince, is baptized (13.150). Mygodonia and Tertia visit the apostle in prison, and the apostle prepares the group for baptism. They all share another Eucharist (13.157–58). The Martyrdom of the Apostle Thomas: Thomas is imprisoned, and gives a special commissioning to Tertia and Mygdonia, and he is tried, stripped, and martyred. After Thomas’s death, King Mazdai is ultimately converted because of sickness from which his son is healed. (159–70). The colorful coming of Christianity to India brings violence, chaos, abrupt interventions, scandals, and social revolt. Thomas’s apostolic legitimacy comes from his kinship with Christ, and he demonstrates this through miracles and godly insight. Thomas converts people from every social stratum through mira- cles, exorcisms, poetic discourse, and ritual. THE ACTS OF THOMAS AS A NARRATIVE TYPOLOGY OF THE SYRIAC MISSIONARY STORY Just as missionaries traveled throughout the Syriac-speaking world, so did stories about them. In the third century c.e., stories about the apostle Thomas that were circulating among Syriac speakers were compiled into a composite text, the Acts of Thomas.10 The popularity of the Acts of Thomas among late antique audiences dem- onstrates that Syriac- and Greek-speaking Christians gravitated to the symbol of a reluctant missionary apostle. Circulation of the Acts of Thomas among Christian groups was broad, and subsequent Syriac hagiographers followed in its literary footsteps. As we will see, some of the main motifs in the Acts of Thomas work together to form a narrative typology that is found in other missionary stories. Genre: The Bible and Ancient Novels The Acts of Thomas belongs to the genre of apocryphal narrative. The New Testa- ment book of the Acts of the Apostles presents a picture of Jesus’s disciples estab- lishing new societies of believers in the regions around the Mediterranean. Before his ascension to heaven, Jesus instructs his followers to be his witnesses, going out Saint - 9780520284968.indd 21 16/02/15 6:34 PM 22 Saint Thomas, Missionary Apostle to India from Judea to Samaria and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8), and as they move from place to place, he urges them to heal and speak with boldness (Acts 4:13). Some awestruck people accept Jesus’s followers, but others ridicule them and accuse them of madness, saying they are “filled with new wine” (Acts 2:13). The book of Acts exhibits literary patterns and sets precedents that subsequent stories about the apostles will use to describe individual and communal conversions. We find these stories within the Acts of Thomas. The creation of a new Christian soci- ety is accompanied by chaos and miracles, turmoil and rebirth. The integration of biblical typologies in the Acts of Thomas is obvious. Thomas, mirroring the activities of his twin, Christ, converts through healing.The saint’s wonderworking ability shows his access to the divine. Thomas resurrects dead chil- dren, who come back to life and confess Christ.11 The apostle uses sacraments to heal those whom demons torment.12 We read, for example, a variant on the story of the resurrection narratives of Mary Magdalene and Jesus.13 When the matron Mygdonia visits Thomas in prison, she does not recognize him: “[Mygdonia] was afraid and fell down. And he stood up [qom] before her and said, ‘Don’t be afraid Mydgonia!’ Do not desert Jesus Christ. Do not desert your Lord to whom you have entrusted your soul.”14 Novelistic elements are used in a paradoxical way as the text promotes ascet- icism and romanticized chaste relationships between men and women: Mygdonia flees her husband’s bed to visit the apostle.15 Like the Acts of the Apostles, this text features a miraculous escape from prison,16 and like some of the noncanonical nar- ratives about Jesus, including the Gospel of Nicodemus and the Acts of Pilate, the Acts of Thomas features a tour of the underworld. H. J. W. Drijvers notes that parallels and shared motifs of the apocryphal Acts of the Apostles “can be better explained from the common background of tradition and milieu shared by the two Acts.”17 The Syr- iac version of the Acts of Thomas enumerates the names of the apostles along with their missionary assignments. This specificity is absent from the Greek text. The narrative also expands on the Pauline image of Christ’s kenosis.18 The all- powerful Lord becomes a slave to redeem humanity, and he then sells his freeborn twin into slavery to further his mission. The holy man qua slave motif, moreover, can be an allusion to the biblical patriarch Joseph, whose brothers sold him into slavery.19 Thomas distinguishes his mission: “I am imitating you my Lord Jesus Christ. It is not just that I believe, but that I endure many things! You made me worthy to be in the Lord’s image.”20 The Acts of Thomas features the leitmotifs of exotic travel, royal characters, and mistaken identity that we find in the late antique Greek novels and in other apoc- ryphal Acts.21 Greek novels also feature the motif of a hero sold to an Indian mer- chant. Xenophon of Ephesus, for instance, writes of the Greek heroine Anthea, who was sold as a slave to a rich Indian merchant.22 Like the stories of the Greek novels, the Acts of Thomas features adventures and themes of romance. It also shares motifs with the Acts of Paul and Thecla, the Acts Saint - 9780520284968.indd 22 16/02/15 6:34 PM Saint Thomas, Missionary Apostle to India 23 of John, the Acts of Andrew, and the Acts of Philip. Their similarities with the Greco- Roman novel have been demonstrated elsewhere: “There is a motley mixture of miracle stories, fantastic deeds of the apostle, conversions, nature miracles and stories of demons, which are akin to the novelistic narrative art of the ancient world.”23 The Christianity that Thomas brings turns society upside down and undoes the laws of nature. The story reorders a pagan landscape into a Christian one with scenes of weddings overturned, Christian queens fleeing from their pagan husbands dead women returning from the underworld and donkeys reveal- ing hidden knowledge.24 The compiler of the Acts of Thomas, however, uses the structure of the novel and the Acts of the Apostles to promote the theological ideals and practices of the emergent communities of the Christian East.25 Christian mission brings chaos and upheaval to pagan society, but it transforms states of social disorder into well- arranged Christian kingdoms. Divine Kinship and Twin Discourse The Acts of Thomas blends discourse on twins and family with the Christian rheto- ric of paradox to construct an apostolic history for the Orient. The Acts pairs images of twins and slaves, masters and apostles, to elevate its patron’s lineage. Twin discourse elevates Thomas’s status by blurring distinctions between the actions of Christ and those of the apostle. Thomas heals and exorcises as Christ does,26 and the characters mistake Thomas and Christ for each other.27 The story includes themes with biblical precedents: Thomas is a carpenter like Christ, who preaches and shares meals with his disciples after he has healed them. Thomas, like Jesus, dies at the hands of a political ruler. Yet a closer look reveals the stark differ- ences between Thomas’s deeds and those of the canonical Jesus: Thomas occupies himself with kings, queens, and princesses, and the affairs of the royal bedroom.28 Jesus works with fishermen, sinful women, lepers, and occupies himself with the affairs of Galilean peasants.29 Thomas travels as a slave with merchants.30 The twin language and Thomas’s weaving of biblical verses into the text, however, naturalize these divergences between Thomas and Christ, giving the story a biblical gloss and “India” an apostolic past. The twinning of Christ and Thomas corresponds to the construction of the text’s dualistic symbolic universe. The story sets up contrasts between the corrupt- ible and the incorruptible, kings and servants, the demonic and this earth versus the divine and heaven, men and women, conversion of the heart and healing of the body, and so on. Even earthly “goods” are poor imitations of their heavenly coun- terparts.31 This hermeneutic emerges also in the narrative pattern of the hidden and the revealed the eye of the body versus the eye of the heart the temporal world versus eternal life.32 The text is promoting the divine insight that Thomas has. Tho- mas uncovers the dual dimensions of the world hidden to most. Satan, as prince of Saint - 9780520284968.indd 23 16/02/15 6:34 PM 24 Saint Thomas, Missionary Apostle to India the material world, beguiles human beings into a state of forgetfulness about their true origin; the earth is a neutral arena in which good and evil intermingle. The missionary wins the world for his God and the Christians, and he replaces demons with servants of Christ to unify fragmented persons and communities. The Acts of Thomas creates two contrasting lines of descent in two nonhuman biblical characters: a talking donkey that descends from Balaam’s ass and the ser- pent sprung from the snake of Genesis.33 The snake calls himself a creeper and the son of a creeper,34 and he portrays his participation in evil events in biblical his- tory. The donkey, which carries Thomas on his back, claims to be an heir of noble asses memorialized in scripture.35 Just as apostles divide into Judas Thomas’s and Judas Iscariots, and incorporeal beings into angels and demons, so the text uses biblical animals to construct twinned lines of descent in the created world. The donkey/serpent motif shows inversions of power: the snake tempts and poisons; his authority comes from his kinship to Satan. The beast’s prophetic speech reveals the nearness of the donkey to the divine, and his humble service to Thomas. Theology of Sacred Travel: Real and Spiritual Journeys to Christ The Acts of Thomas, like all missionary stories, focuses on journeys, both physical and spiritual. Thomas is a foreigner, aksenāyā, who enters the social fabric of the kingdoms of India from below, as a craftsman or carpenter.36 The wandering apos- tle, homeless and uninterested in concerns of the world, directs people to their true heavenly home by assigning to them positions in the Christian earthly hierar- chy that anticipate their lives in heaven. Thomas is on a journey to India, but as he converts people, he leads them on an interior journey to Christ. The theological underpinnings of the story distinguish it from the Greek novels of late antiquity. Jesus sends Thomas away from Jerusalem to convert the East, and the apostle’s sacred travels begin. The narrative also describes unseen journeys of the spirit to which Thomas calls his disciples, as he awakens their souls to recall their true selves. A newly converted prince of India explains to his father that he has discovered his divine origin: “He [Thomas] showed me how to find my own self.”37 The Acts portray Christianity as religion that heals the body and spirit and brings freedom. Faith in Thomas’s God trans- forms new converts. The Acts of Thomas stands out from later texts, however, in its focus on the divine origins of the individual believer. The hymns of the Acts of Thomas contain theological metaphors describing the church as a bride of light. The Acts of Thomas also connects the wandering apostle motif with another bridal symbol in the Syriac language, the verb mkar. The root meaning of the word is “to barter,” while its extended meaning is “to betrothe.” The apostle, a slave to the mer- chant, thus facilitates the marriage between the bridegroom Christ and his betrothed, the church: a heavenly eschatological wedding feast arranged by the apostle, as the bartering or betrothing merchant.38 Saint - 9780520284968.indd 24 16/02/15 6:34 PM Saint Thomas, Missionary Apostle to India 25 The theology of sacred wandering and returning to Christ is best exemplified in the hymn that Thomas sings while he is imprisoned: the “Hymn on the Pearl.”39 Thomas chants about a king and queen who send their son on an expedition to find a hidden pearl, giving him a royal tunic. The prince sets out, but he loses his way in Egypt and forgets his royal heritage. His parents send him a letter to help him recall his mission and royal lineage. The youth then regains his robe, retrieves the pearl from the serpent, and comes home to rule his land with his brother: “The Hymn is a symbolic portrayal of the life of Adam, the man who of his own free will left his Father’s house, Paradise, with a part of his inheritance. . . . Then the whole process is put into reverse: he recovers his splendid robe, the image of God, and will rule with his brother, his heavenly second self, Jesus (cf. Thomas and Jesus as twins) in the (heavenly) kingdom.”40 This story inverts a version of the missionary story itself, warning of the dangers that befall a traveler who forgets the intent of his mission. The type/antitype pattern- ing of the hymn’s images relates to themes from the dominant narrative. The values of the hymn compare to the ideals of the Acts of Thomas. Unlike Thomas, who maintains his course to Christ through prayer,41 even in imprisonment, the prince of the hymn begins with purpose but loses his way. The hymn reunites a family broken apart; the Acts of Thomas breaks up earthly families and discourages marriage. The hymn cele- brates royalty; the Acts of Thomas promotes simplicity and anonymity. The prince of the “Hymn on the Pearl” must hold fast to his material possessions,42 whereas the Acts of Thomas promises freedom through poverty. Thomas, though a pauper and magi- cian in the temporal world, emerges as a superior double of the royal son.43 Both the prince and Thomas move from freeborn social statuses into slavery. Both complete missions in service to a lord. Both fall into a decadent society but Thomas resists its temptations.44 He, unlike the prince, never forgets his royal lineage. The interpolation of this hymn into the Acts of Thomas preserves a beautiful piece of literature and combines the image of the itinerant missionary apostle with that of an imprisoned bard, painting an icon of the missionary poet. In subsequent missionary texts, intellectual practices involving speech, debaters, letter writers, preachers, or hagiographers continue the tradition of speaking charismata of the missionary holy man, but the specific image of the poet apostle is unique to the Acts of Thomas. The sanctification of itinerancy and journeys, as presented in the Acts of Tho- mas, has a long trajectory in the stories of the Syrians. The notion of holy itiner- ancy and homelessness in the Acts of Thomas might in fact reflect an early period in Syrian Christianity of wandering ascetics, as Daniel Caner has suggested.45 By the fifth century, however, monastic detachment brings conflict with the church leaders in the cities.46 As we discuss in subsequent chapters of this book, the theological themes of detachment, homelessness, poverty, and itinerant healing in the Acts of Thomas Saint - 9780520284968.indd 25 16/02/15 6:34 PM 26 Saint Thomas, Missionary Apostle to India reemerge in Syriac texts of the fifth and sixth centuries as symbols of legitimacy for monks and Miaphysite bishops exiled from their sees.47 Miaphysite bishops like Simeon of Beth Arsham and Jacob Baradaeus (described in chapters 5 and 6 of this book) lose the support of the imperial church. Their hagiographer John of Ephesus gravitates to the narrative typology of the itinerant missionary saint that is canon- ized in the Acts of Thomas. John of Ephesus will cast the bishops according to this ideal. Persecution drives Syriac monks from the safety of their monasteries. John will use the model of itinerancy, as glorified in the Acts of Thomas, to redefine their lack of stability as holy itinerancy, once consecrated in Syriac memory as “apostolicity.” Model Societies: Converting the King, Creating Christian Families The Acts of Thomas established a paradigm that future Syriac missionary stories adopted: Christianity arrives in the Syrian Orient through the conversion of the royal household. Thomas proclaims the message of Christianity to the kingdoms of India, and riots follow. Thomas challenges social orders that madden local rul- ers. Kings pursue the apostle throughout the narrative, and they even incarcerate him. The building of a new Christian society, as the legend portrays it, requires that Thomas disrupt the regnant power structures. His challenges are largely eco- nomic, disrupting the kingdom’s financial administration and threatening the familial structures that ensure the continuity of the household economy. In one instance, Thomas fails to fulfill his obligations of labor to the king. Rather than building a palace for the king as commissioned, Thomas gives the money to the poor to build a palace in heaven, and Gundaphorus imprisons him.48 In the Acts of Thomas, programs of asceticism and social reform sustain com- munity welfare.49 Christianity creates communities structured on asceticism and care of the poor. The missionary teaches Christian labor to the city. Thomas, whom King Gundaphorus hires to construct a palace, gives the money meant for the edifice to the poor instead. When the king asks about the progress of Thomas’s palace building, the royal messengers respond: He is not doing anything [with respect to the construction], but rather he goes around in cities and towns giving to the poor and teaching them a new God. Also he heals the sick, and he drives out demons. . . . We thought that he was a sorcerer. It is thought from his asceticism and his religion that he is a magician or an apostle of the new God. He fasts and prays a great deal. He eats bread and salt and drinks water. He wears a linen garment and takes nothing from anyone. Anything that he has, he gives to others.50 Thomas’s other economic challenges entail the “corruption” of the pagan house- hold. Thomas intervenes on the night of the princess bride’s marriage to stop the young couple from having intercourse.51 King Gundaphorus runs Thomas out of Saint - 9780520284968.indd 26 16/02/15 6:34 PM