CHAPTER VI
Little Mount
SIX miles from Fort St. George and four miles south-west of San
Thome de Meliapor, there rises a hillock about eighty feet above
sea-level. It is known as Little Mount, or, to put it in popular Tamil,
Chinna Malai. To the Portuguese, it was ‘Monte Pequeno’. This is
one of the three places on the Coromandel Coast actively associated
with the missionary labours of the Apostle. Time was when this
locality showed nothing but a wild growth of trees and shrubs.
Hoary tradition both among Catholics and non-Catholics,
which is reflected in many literary works, proudly holds that this
part of Mylapore extended shelter to the Apostle, when the
ministers of the local king, Mahadevan, were out to murder him. A
Hindu journal in Tamil Sumitran, as recently as 1900, supported
this tradition in one of its leading articles. Though a favourite of the
king, Thomas was ever in danger of losing his precious life–thanks
to the scheming ministers whipped up by Hindu priests.
There is a version that the Apostle was actually handled
brutally more than once in his apartment, in the absence of the king.
In order to save his life for yet a little while for the greater glory
of God, Thomas is reported to have sought refuge is the jungles of
Little Mount. A cave on the hillock afforded him ideal shelter. One
could still see this cave, which is far from artificial, on the gospelside
of the high altar in the old church.
The cave is about sixteen feet in length and about fifteen in
breadth. It is not more than seven feet from the door to the roof, at
its highest. A crevice about five by two feet, with two or three crude
steps, opens down into the cave. Visitors can hardly pass through
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this passage without an inconvenient wriggle. It has been thought
fit not to embellish this entrance, nor even to change anything in
the whole cave in order to give an idea of its original state.
On the southern side, almost opposite the entrance to the cave,
a sort of window, about two and a half feet long and almost as
broad, throws a dim light into the cave. Strong tradition has it that
this aperture was miraculously effected for the Apostle to make
good his escape, when the enemies, who got scent of him, entered
through the crevice at the northern end. How the Saint managed to
squeeze himself out of this veritable hole is nothing short of a
wonder. It is all more amazing when one sees the clear impress of
his fingers which seem natural formations on the roof of the rock
by the side of the aperture. The finger prints suggest a human figure
of about six to seven feet in height.
Notwithstanding the little light let into the cave by the
aperture, visitors can scarcely make their way in without the help
of a candle. Electric lights now solve the problem of lighting up the
cave and the entrance. The floor of the cave slopes gently towards
an altar erected at the extreme end of the cave. On the altar stands
a modem statue of St. Thomas with a scroll showing the words in
Latin: ‘Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed;
blessed are they that have not seen and have believed’81. A Jesuit
Father, speaking in 1559, said that mass was being offered in the
cave sometimes.
About the year 1551, Little Mount ‘began to be levelled and
cleared for the convenience of the pilgirms’. The Portuguese built
the old church of Our Lady of Health adjoining the cave, to which
one gains access from within the church on the gospel-side. Behind
this church, there is on level ground, a rough cross chiselled on
stone where St. Thomas is said to have offered Mass and spent long
hours in prayer and meditation. Next to this stone, one finds a broad
fissure about five to six feet in depth, widely known as the fountain
of St. Thomas.
Fr. Tachard also mentions two other monuments at Little
Mount. One is the cave and the other is the miraculous spring.
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Of the cave he writes: ‘Seven or eight steps lead to the altar,
beneath which there is cave about 14 feet broad and 15 or 16 feet
long… One enters it with some difficulty through, a crevice in the
rock........... It has not been thought fit to embellish this entrance,
nor even to change anything in the whole cave, because it is
believed that St. Thomas often retired into this solitary place to
pray. Our Missionaries have put up an altar at the eastern end of the
cave. There is a tradition among the people that a sort of window
on the southern end of about 2 1/2 feet, which throws a very dim
light into the cave, was miraculously made, and that it was through
this opening that St. Thomas escaped.’82
Of the miraculous spring Fr. Tachard has left us this record:
‘This is called St. Thomas’ fountain. There is a rather common
tradition in the country that the Holy Apostle who lived at Little
Mount, being moved to see that the people who came in crowds to
hear his preaching suffered much from thirst, as water could be had
only at a great distance in the plain, knelt in prayer on the highest
part of the hill, struck the rock with his stick, and instantly there
gushed forth a spring of clear water, which cured the sick when
they drank of it trusting in the intercession of the Saint. The stream
which now runs at the foot of Little Mount appeared only at the
beginning of the last century. It was formed by the overflowing and
bursting of a distant tank owing to heavy rain. This formed the little
canal which in times of drought contains saltish water, because at
2 leagues from Little Mount it communicates with the sea. There
are yet people alive who affirm that more than fifty years ago (Fr.
Tachard was writing in 1711) they saw this hole in the rock just as
I have presently described it, and they add that, heretical women
having thrown dirt therein to oppose, they said, the superstition of
the populace, the water receded immediately, and that these women
died that very, day of an extraordinary colic in punishment of their
audacity. The water is continually being taken and drunk.
Missionaries and Christians affirm that it produces sudden cures
even to the present day.83
The stream, which now runs at the foot of the Little Mount,
appeared only at the beginning of the 17th century. It ‘was formed
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by the overflowing and bursting of a distant tank due to heavy
rain.84 The Perennial Spring of St. Thomas is enclosed.
Portuguese Jesuits erected a Church in the 16th century over
a cross near the aforementioned spring. This church, known as the
Church of the Resurrection, has scarcely left behind any traces of
its existence. A cross still seen there, is etched in relief in the
hollow of the rock. But for its size this cross resembles the one on
the Great Mount. Whenever the cross at St. Thomas’s Mount
changed colour and was ‘overshadowed by clouds and sweat’85,
similar changes were seen on the cross at Little Mount; but the
cloud and sweat were less abundant. Father Silvester De Souza, a
Jesuit missionary in Malabar, who was living for a long time at
Little Mount assured Guy Tachard that he had been an eye-witness
to this miracle.86 Father Silvester De Souza, S.J. is mentioned by
Francisco De Souza, assisting at the sweating of the cross at the
Great Mount on December 18th, 1695.87
The present presbytery an archaic structure in appearance was
constructed in 1559 along with the Church of the Resurrection, by
Portuguese priests. On the opposite side of the presbytery, facing
the Adyar river, there stands a white masonry column capped by a
cross. This place has been regarded as the pulpit of St. Thomas. The
rock below this column bears a cross not unlike the one near the
Perennial Spring. In front of the old church, down below, one could
see a boulder that clearly shows the impress of a huge foot,
reported to be that of the Apostle.
The impression on the boulder is far from artificial and is
quite in proportion to the impression of the fingers on the ceiling
of the cave. An ingenious, nevertheless plausible, explanation has
been offered for the huge size of the impressions, namely, that the
rock has grown, down the centuries and the impression with them.
To others it would seem that St. Thomas was a mountain of a man.
The inscription of the marble slab at the entrance of the cave, runs
as follows: ‘The cave, where lay hid, persecuted just before being
martyred by Rajah Mahadevan A.D. 68, Thomas, one of the twelve,
the great Apostle of India, the very one who put his fingers into the
wounds of his Lord and God.88
73
The Tank of the old Hindu Temple at Palayoor, where according to tradition, St. Thomas
met the challenge of the Brahmins.
74
Ancient Stone Image of St. Thomas, found under the
marble stone on the tomb, when it was dug up in 1729.
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The extension to the Church built in 1551, proved to be
inadequate for the present congregation of the Parish and has been
pulled down. In its place a .circular Church has now been
constructed to accommodate about 800 to 1000 people.
The idea of the circular Church rose from the fact that the
land available would not permit the conventional church. There
were graves in the Church compound which had to be, retained.
Therefore the grotto alongside the Parish House was dismantled
and rocks blasted to give room for the circular church. The Church
is connected to the vaulted chapel by a corridor. The new Church
has two entrances almost opposite to the flight of steps now leading
down to the foot of the hill. The church can also be approached by
a road, direct from the Marmalong Bridge. The planning allows the
congregation to be as near to the altar as possible and there is
unrestricted view of the Service.
The Church has a diameter of 75 ft., and the spire rises to
about 70 ft. The central area is raised to give more light and
ventilation and this culminates in the spire, a truncated cone, with
a mighty cross above. The tower and cross are visible from the
Marmalong Bridge as one drives to the airport.
Little Mount seems to be invested at present, with an air of
artificiality. The hand of man has changed not a little the original
appearance of the place. Great care, however, appears to have been
taken not to tamper with the things intimately connected with the
Apostle. Hoary and holy monuments impel visitors as it were, to
piety and recollection. The annual feast of the church dedicated to
Our Lady of Good Health, comes off on the fourth Sunday after
Easter. Pilgrims from all over Madras and the suburbs, both
Christians and non-Christians, flock to this place by the thousand
for the feast, year after year.
