Thomas the Apostle

=== Paraguayan legend ===
Ancient oral tradition retained by the [[Guaraní people|Guaraní]] tribes of [[Paraguay]] claims that the Apostle Thomas was in Paraguay and preached to them under the name of Paí Sumé or Avaré Sumé.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Portal Guaraní - FOLKLORE, TRADICIONES, MITOS Y LEYENDAS DEL PARAGUAY - COMPILACIÓN Y BIBLIOGRAFÍA RECOMENDADA - Compilación de Mitos y Leyendas del Paraguay - Bibliografía Recomendada |url=https://www.portalguarani.com/detalles_museos_otras_obras.php?id=103&id_obras=2374&id_otras=369 |access-date=2023-09-26 |website=www.portalguarani.com}}</ref>
{{blockquote|in the estate of our college, called Paraguay, and twenty leagues distant from Asumpcion. This place stretches out on one side into a pleasant plain, affording pasture to a vast quantity of cattle; on the other, where it looks towards the south, it is surrounded by hills and rocks; in one of which a cross piled up of three large stones is visited, and held in great veneration by the natives for the sake of St. Thomas; for they believe, and firmly maintain, that the Apostle, seated on these stones as on a chair, formerly preached to the assembled Indians.|source={{harvnb|Dobrizhoffer|1822|p=385}} }}

Almost 150 years prior to Dobrizhoffer's arrival in Paraguay, another Jesuit Missionary, F. J. [[Antonio Ruiz de Montoya]] recollected the same oral traditions from the Paraguayan tribes. He wrote:

{{blockquote|...The paraguayan tribes they have this very curious tradition. They claim that a very holy man (Thomas the Apostle himself), whom they call "Paí Thome", lived amongst them and preached to them the Holy Truth, wandering and carrying a wooden cross on his back.|source={{harvnb|Ruiz de Montoya|1639|loc=Ch XVIII}} }}

The sole recorded research done about the subject was during [[José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia]]'s reign after the [[Independence of Paraguay]]. This is mentioned by Franz Wisner von Morgenstern, an Austro-Hungarian engineer who served in the Paraguayan armies prior and during the [[Paraguayan War]]. According to Von Morgenstern, some Paraguayan miners while working nearby some hills at the [[Caaguazú Department]] found some stones with ancient letters carved in them. [[Dictator]] Francia sent his finest experts to inspect those stones, and they concluded that the letters carved in those stones were [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]-like symbols, but they couldn't translate them nor figure out the exact date when those letters were carved.{{sfn|von Morgenstern|1998|p=198}} No further recorded investigations exists, and according to Wisner, people believed that the letters were made by Thomas the Apostle, following the tradition.