His life, according to James of Voragine.
His life, told in stained glass at Chartres Cathedral.
Sequence for the feast:
Filii Ecclesiae
Solemni laetitia:
Thomas doctor in die
Laudis et laetitiae
Nobis est materia.
Abanes praepositus
Circuit sollicitus,
Quaerens virum strenuum,
Qui Romano opere
Noverit exstruere
Domum arte manuum.
Tradit ei protinus
Servum suum Dominus,
Prudentem artificem:
Mox, ascensis navibus,
De rebus sublimibus
Conferunt ad invicem.
Regis intrant nuptias,
Sed epulas regias
Velut immunditias
Thomas obliviscitur:
Cibum habens alium,
Puellae praeconium,
In conspectu omnium
A pincema caeditur.
Quem lacerat,
Dum properat,
Ut de fonte aquam ferat,
Leo diris morsibus;
Mox attulit
Quo pertulit
Manum canis et intulit
Ibi coram omnibus.
Auro sibi commendato
Pauperibus erogato,
Domus surgit regia:
Non est domus temporalis,
Sed est status immortalis
In coelesti patria.
Rex cogebat Apostolum
Ut adoraret idolum,
Et orando divinitus.
Est liquefactum penitus.
Currunt ergo pontifices
Et caeteri carnifices:
Gladio Thomas subditus.
Martyr dignus est habitus.
O Didyme, miles Christi,
Per eumdem quem vidisti,
Cujus latus tetigisti,
Prece posce sedula,
Ut, post cursum hujus vitae,
Nos in Christo vera vite
Maneamus laeti rite
Per aeterna saecula.
Deo laus et gloria.
Amen dicant omnia!
Hymns, that holy joy display,
With one voice rejoicing, raise:
Thomas, that great teacher, now
Is the theme on which we show
Forth our gladness and our praise!
Abanes the president
Once upon his travels went,
Seeking anxiously a man,
Who, in handicraft well-skilled,
Had the art wherewith to build
Houses on the Roman plan.
Then the Lord His servant brings
To him, as in all such things
A most skilful workman bred;
Soon embarking on shipboard,
They in converse upward soared
To the highest themes instead.
At a royal marriage-feast
Thomas, since to him at least
Such feasts are impure, as guest,
Wholly lost in thought doth seem:
Other food he hath, the praise
Which a damsel's accents raise,
So the butler, in full gaze
Of the feasters, smiteth him.
A lion dread, -
As this man sped
For water to the fountain-head, -
With its fangs his limbs doth tear;
Soon by a hound
The hand was found
Which he had used, and carried round
In the sight of all men there.
Though the gold to him commended
He upon the poor expended.
Upward doth a palace rise:
Not a palace transitory,
But a state of endless glory
In the land of Paradise.
The king would the Apostle bring
By force to idol-worshipping;
But, when he doth to heaven pray,
The idol wholly melts away.
Therefore the priests together run
With other torturers many a one,
And Thomas, brought beneath the blade,
A glorious Martyr thus is made.
Didymus, Christ's warrior plighted!
Through Him Who thy gaze requited,
And Whose side thy touch invited,
With unceasing prayer implore,
That, when this life's course is ended,
We, with Christ, the true Vine, blended,
To those joys may be commended
Fitly, which endure e'ermore!
Glory be to God and praise!
"Amen" let creation raise!