St. Thomas' Church is situated in

Kotahena Kotahena is a suburb of Colombo, Sri Lanka, and is known as ''Colombo 13''. Places of worship Local houses of worship include: * St. Lucia's Cathedral (1881), Catholic * St. Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade, St. Anthony's Shrine, Catholic *St. ...

(District 13) a suburb of

Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. It is one of the oldest churches in Sri Lanka as now part of the Anglican

Church of Ceylon The Church of Ceylon () is the Anglican Church in Sri Lanka. It is an extraprovincial jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who serves as its Metropolitan bishop, Metropolitan. It was established in 1845 with the appointment of the fir ...

. St. Thomas Church was the first Anglican church built in Sri Lanka, it was constructed by

Governor of Ceylon {{Use dmy dates, date=November 2019 The governor of Ceylon can refer to historical vice-regal representatives of three colonial powers: Portuguese Ceylon * List of captains of Portuguese Ceylon (1518–1551) * List of captain-majors of Portugue ...

Sir

Robert Brownrigg General (United Kingdom), General Sir Robert Brownrigg, 1st Baronet, Order of the Bath, GCB (8 February 1758 – 27 April 1833) was an Kingdom of Ireland, Irish-born United Kingdom, British statesman and soldier. He brought the last part of ...

for the use by the local Tamil Christian ( Malabar) population. The Malabars at the time were sharing St. Peter's Church, Colombo with the local Europeans. When their number increased to nearly 600 the Malabars collected approximately 860 rupees and approached the government, through Abraham Rodrigo Devanesan Mootookistna, the

Mudaliyar Thuluva Vellalar, also known as Agamudi Mudaliar or Arcot Mudaliars, is a caste found in northern Tamil Nadu, southern Andhra Pradesh and southern Karnataka. They were an elite and dominant land-owning community. Etymology The earliest occu ...

interpreter to the governor, for assistance to erect their own church. Brownrigg granted their request and gave orders for the erection of a church at Ginthupitiya, the site of a former Roman Catholic church, which was constructed by the Portuguese. Its presence was testified in the 16th century by Paulo da Trindade (1571-1651). Ginthupitiya was originally known as "San Thome Pitiya" by the Portuguese, who recorded finding a

Nestorian cross The Nestorian cross is associated with the Church of the East. It is composed of a cross similar to the Maltese cross, with four arms of roughly equal length which narrow in width towards the center of the cross. In Eastern Christian art in China ...

in the area which they believed indicated an earlier presence of Persian Christians and possibly a site where

Thomas the Apostle Thomas the Apostle (; , meaning 'the Twin'), also known as Didymus ( 'twin'), was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament. Thomas is commonly known as "doubting Thomas" because he initially doubted the resurrection of ...

visited and delivered a sermon. The Dutch subsequently destroyed the church when they took over from the Portuguese. The Dutch made three segregated graveyards, one for their own countrymen, one for their local allies and one for the outsiders/non-conformists, known as "Genthos" in

dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

, which led to the name of the area being changed from "San Thome Pitiya" to "Genthopitiya". Paul E. Pieris hypothesises, based on sources from Clevid's 1893 ''A Brief Sketch of the History of St Thomas Church'' hypothesises that 'San Thome' degenerated to 'Gin tun' and in turn to 'Gintu'. The first church service was held on 16 July 1816, with the Rev. George Bisset conducting the Service, Rev. Thomas James Twisleton delivered the sermon and prayers were said in Tamil by G. J. Ondaatjie. Interior of St. Thomas' Church, Colombo.jpg SL Colombo asv2020-01 img04 StThomas Church.jpg Entrance Sign St. Thomas' Church, Colombo.jpg

References

External links

The Church of Ceylon (Anglican Communion)

Anglican Church of Ceylon News
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, St. Churches in Colombo Church of Ceylon church buildings in the Diocese of Colombo 1815 establishments in Ceylon Churches completed in 1816 British colonial architecture in Sri Lanka 19th-century Anglican church buildings in Sri Lanka

See also

References

External links