Devapriyaji - True History Analaysed

CHAPTER IX

The Bleeding Cross

THE chief attraction for pilgrims and tourists to the Mount is the

Bleeding Cross of St. Thomas. This cross, carved by St. Thomas,

as tradition would have it, was accidentally discovered as the

Portuguese were digging up the foundations for a new church on

the hill. Bishop Frey Andre de Santa Maria of Cochin, to whose

jurisdiction St. Thomas’ Mount belonged, has, the following to

state regarding the cross:

‘This stone is as big as a mill-stone and was lying with the

cross carved on it turned down, and the reverse upwards. As the

whole appearance of the stone on the reverse was rough and

unpolished, it looked just a rough stone lying about. Those who

were digging the foundations were about to leave it there without

taking much notice of it. But moved by God, they turned it face

upwards and noticed the beautiful cross carved on it with the

inscription around the same. This stone had on one side of the

cross, a streak of blood, and looked to be so fresh as if it had been

shed at that very moment; which blood, – although it went on

disappearing both by action of time and by the sweat and water

which the stone exudes when the miracle takes place, and although

some people scrape it – even now gives traces of what had once

been there, notwithstanding that already fifty years had elapsed

since the stone was discovered and placed there by way of reredos

of the altar’.93

Francis Gouvea pertinently says, ‘This stone has a cross very

well carved and similar to that used by the order of D’Aaiz,

Portugal, and a bird touching with its beak the top of the cross –

which bird is in the shape of the one drawn in the paintings

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representing the coming of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles, a

dove’.94 Description of the stone given by Gouvea, then, holds good

even now. It is stated that ‘there was found under it (the stone)

much earth bedewed with blood as if it were freshly shed, a good

portion of it being attached to the stone itself.’95. This earth is said

to have been gathered up at the time and placed in a vessel

somewhere at St. Thomas’ Mount; for, a slab was later discovered

in the debris on the hill with the inscription: ‘Como Esta Em. Da

Cruz Q’Aqui Se Achou Po Revelacao Co Hu Vazo Cheo De Terra.

No. Ano De 1596’. It may well be that the vessel of earth found in

the tomb of St. Thomas at Mylapore as we read in the Chapter 5,

is the same one referred to in this inscription.

Guy Tachard, S.J. writing in 1781 to the Confessor of the

Duke of Orleans concerning the Cross at St. Thomas’ Mount, says:

‘The fact is that miracles are continually wrought at Our Lady of

the Mount. Numerous ex-votos of the piety of the faithful who have

been cured of the various diseases can be seen there, just as in

places of Europe, where there are miraculous images. One week

before Christmas, the Portuguese celebrate with great pomp what

they call the feast ot the Expectation of the Blessed Virgin. At those

times, there sometimes occurs a miracle which contributes much to

the veneration which the people have for this sacred spot. This

miracle is so well proved, so public, and examined so closely by

Catholics and Protestants, who come in large numbers to the church

that day, that the most incredulous among them cannot doubt it’96.

A leading journal of the time97 sheds more light on this matter.

On page 77 of this journal we read that ‘in the year 1558, on the

day of the feast – Expectation of Our Lady, December 18th – when

the singing of the Gospel of the Mass was started, the stone; of the

cross began to turn black in colour and to distil water in such large

quantity, that those who so willed, soaked their linen and rosaries

in it. The Vicar, Gasper Coelho, who was saying Mass, after the

Communion was over, dipped, a purificator into the water and

placed it in the chalice; the next day he found, it as if it were

soaked in blood and showed it to the people. This time, the miracle

lasted for four continual hours; when it came to an end, the stone

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turned to a very white and resplendent colour, which fact gladdened

all present; and drying itself slowly, the stone lost the bright colour

and turned to its natural colour, blackish.

‘Thereafter, every year and on the same day, when the Gospel

of the Mass was begun, the miracle was renewed, the sweat

beginning from the top of the cross downwards and so much water

gathered up over the border that there was a Decree from one of the

Bishops of Cochin, given during the pastoral visit, ordering that all

the water be gathered up into a special vase to be administered later

on to the sick as a holy remedy for their infirmities.’

People of all denominations, atheists not excluded, used to

crowd at the place to see for themselves these supernatural

happenings, so that seeing they might believe. Bishop Andre of

Cochin who speaks of ‘the sweat of water which the stone exudes

when the miracle takes place.’98 reported the matter to Rome

towards the beginning of the Council of Trent.

Sylvester De Souza, S.J.99 an eye-witness to this phenomenon

in 1689 and 1695, states that on December 18th of the latter year,

the church was packed to capacity. As the sermon was being

preached the audience became restless and then suddenly broke

into cries of ‘Miracle!’. The preacher stopped short, turning round

he saw the wonderful spectacle! The black stone, in the first

instance, appeared reddish, then brown, and finally dazzling white.

Thereupon it was veiled by dark clouds, which, at intervals,

appeared and disappeared. Immediately after this, the cross became

quite moist and exuded such a quantity of water that it trickled

down upon the altar. At the request of the people, the Vicar dipped

their handkerchiefs in it and returned them all dripping wet, after

having fully wiped the cross.

A good many Protestants and unbelievers, after the fashion of

the ‘doubting Thomas’ doubted the genuineness of the miracle.

Some of them climbed the roof of the church to examine for

themselves if there were any traces of trickery or fraud by means

of which the ignorance and credulity of the people was exploited.

But, no amount of the most careful scrutiny on their part could

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detect anything natural about the whole affair. Much against their

will they were obliged to admit that here was the hand of God and

not of any mortal man.

There are several other accounts of the annual ‘sweating’ of

this stone from 1551 to 1704, besides those stated in the Journada

as having taken place in December 1557, 1558, 1561 and 1581. It

must be said here that the phenomenon did not always occur on

December 18th. In the year 1581, for instance, the stone sweated

not only on December 18th but also on the first Sunday of Advent.

Often it was observed in the early hours of the morning before the

church was opened for public worship. Guy Tachard in his letter

100 states that on one occasion, when the sweat began to cease, the

Reverend Father Rector of the Jesuit College of San Thome, Father

Pereira, sent a missionary, Father Sylvester De Souza, to Little

Mount, to examine what was going on there. He assured him that

he found the cross, which was similarly cut in the rock, quite moist,

as if it had just sweated, and that the bottom of the hollow, in which

it stands, was quite wet. The same Father Sylvester De Souza was

an eye witness to the phenomenon at least twice. It is strange that

since the year 1704, these wonderful occurrences have stopped

short.

Reports of these phenomena lost no time in reaching Portugal

and the continent. The Portuguese, accustomed to connect all such

extraordinary events with their country, held that whenever this

sweating occurred a national misfortune was in the offing. In point

of fact, the sweating of 1695 was followed by the capture of

Mombasa by the Arabs; the fall of Bardezand Salsette was preceded

by similar circumstances.

A stone, discovered by Msgr. Albert Pereira de Andrade at St.

Patrick’s Church, St. Thomas Mount, in 1954, shows an inscription

dated 1596. It is a record of how the ‘Bleeding or Sweating Stone’

was found.

The English version of the original Portguese (see p. 87)

inscription is as follows:

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‘How this stone is in memory of the Cross which was found

here by Revelation along with a vase full of earth in the year

1596.’101

One may ask why the inscription on the stone states that the

‘Bleeding or Sweating Stone’ was found by Revelation. Who

revealed the existence of the same? We find the following

explanation: The Bishop of Cochin reports in 1600 that those who

in 1547 were digging the foundations for the building of the new

Church on the Mount, found this ‘Bleeding Stone, in the

foundations turned down. As it was not interfering with their work,

they decided to leave it there. Then they were ‘moved by God’ (as

it were inspired) to remove it, which they did.102

Five other crosses more or less like the one on the Mount are

found in various places; two in Valliapalli Church, Kottayam; one

at Kadamattam, Malabar; one at Muthuchira, Malabar; and the fifth

at Anuradhapura, Ceylon. None of these crosses, however, is noted

for the ‘miraculous bleeding’. Historians hold that Malabar and

Ceylonese Crosses, be they on stone or ancient edifices, are no

more than imitations of the Cross on St. Thomas Mount, which

alone is taken to be carved by St. Thomas.