Thomas the Apostle

==== Chios and Ortona ====
[[File:Cattedrale-di-San-Tommaso-al-crepuscolo.jpg|thumb|Ortona's Basilica of Saint Thomas]]

The reputed relics of Saint Thomas remained at Edessa until they were moved to [[Chios]] in 1258.{{sfn|Thurston|1913}} Some portion of the relics were later transferred again, and now rest in the Cathedral of Saint Thomas the Apostle in [[Ortona]], Italy. However, the skull of Thomas is said to be at [[Monastery of Saint John the Theologian]] on the Greek island of [[Patmos]].{{sfn|Sanidopoulos|2010}}

Ortona's three galleys reached the island of Chios in 1258, led by General Leone Acciaiuoli. Chios was considered the island where Thomas, after his death in India, had been buried. A portion fought around the Peloponnese and the Aegean islands, the other in the sea lapping at the then Syrian coast. The three galleys of Ortona moved on the second front of the war and reached the island of Chios.

The tale is provided by Giambattista De Lectis, physician and writer of the 16th century of Ortona. After the looting, the navarca Ortona Leone went to pray in the main church of the island of Chios and was drawn to a chapel adorned and resplendent with lights. An elderly priest, through an interpreter informed him that in that oratory was venerated the Body of Saint Thomas the Apostle. Leone, filled with an unusual sweetness, gathered in deep prayer. At that moment a light hand twice invited him to come closer. The navarca Leone reached out and took a bone from the largest hole of the tombstone, on which were carved the Greek letters and a halo depicted a bishop from the waist up. He was the confirmation of what he had said the old priest and that you are indeed in the presence of the Apostle's body. He went back on the galley and planned the theft for the next night, along with fellow Ruggiero Grogno. They lifted the heavy gravestone and watched the underlying relics. The wrapped in snow-white cloths them laid in a wooden box (stored at Ortona to the looting of 1566) and brought them aboard the galley. Leone, then, along with other comrades, he returned again in the church, took the tombstone and took her away. Just the Chinardo admiral was aware of the precious cargo moved all the sailors of the Muslim faith on other ships and ordered him to take the route to Ortona.

[[File:Ortona -San Tommaso - Portal- 2006 by-RaBoe 01.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Portal of Ortona, Saint Thomas' Basilica]]
He landed at the port of Ortona 6 September 1258. According to the story of De Lectis, he was informed the abbot Jacopo was responsible for Ortona Church, which predisposed full provision for hospitality felt and shared by all the people. Since then the body of the apostle and the gravestone are preserved in the crypt of the Basilica. In 1259 a parchment written in Bari by the court under John Peacock contracts, the presence of five witnesses, preserved in Ortona at the Diocesan Library, confirming the veracity of that event, reported, as mentioned, by Giambattista De Lectis, physician and writer Ortona of the 16th century.

The relics resisted both the Saracen looting of 1566, and the destruction of the Nazis in the [[battle of Ortona]] fought in late December 1943. The basilica was blown up because the belfry was considered a lookout point by the allies, coming by sea from San Vito Chietino. The relics, together with the treasure of Saint Thomas, were intended by the Germans to be sold, but the monks entombed them inside the bell tower, the only surviving part of the semi-ruined church.
[[File:Ortona -San Tommaso- 2006 by-RaBoe 03.jpg|thumb|Slab of chalcedony which covered the Apostle's relics at Chios, now in the Basilica of Ortona{{sfn|Medlycott|1905|p=}}]]

The tombstone of Thomas, brought to Ortona from Chios along with the relics of the Apostle, are preserved in the crypt of St Thomas Basilica, behind the altar. The urn containing the bones is placed under the altar. It is the cover of a fake coffin, fairly widespread burial form in the early Christian world, as the top of a tomb of less expensive material. The plaque has an inscription and a bas-relief that refer, in many respects, to the Syro-Mesopotamian. Tombstone Thomas the Apostle on inclusion can be read, in Greek characters uncial, the expression 'osios thomas, that Saint Thomas. It can be dated from the point of view palaeographic and lexical to the 3rd–5th century, a time when the term osios is still used as a synonym of aghios in that holy is he that is in the grace of God and is inserted in the church: the two vocabulary, therefore, indicate the Christians. In the particular case of Saint Thomas' plaque, the word osios can be the translation of the word Syriac ''mar'' (Lord), attributed in the ancient world, but also to the present day, is a saint to be a bishop.