From the Prologue of Ochrid
One of the Twelve great Apostles. Through his doubt in the Resurrection of Christ the Lord, a new confirmation of that wondrous and saving event was gained. For the risen Lord appeared again to His disciples in order to convince Thomas. And the Lord said to Thomas: Reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into My side: and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas cried out: My Lord and my God (John 20)! After the descent of the Holy Spirit, when the apostles cast lots as to who would go where to preach, the lot fell upon Thomas to go to India. He was somewhat saddened that he had to go to so distant a land, but the Lord appeared to him and encouraged him. In India Saint Thomas converted many, both noblemen and the poor, to the faith of Christ, and established the Church there, and appointed priests and bishops. Among others, Thomas also converted to the faith two sisters, the wives of two Indian princes: Tertiana and Migdonia. Because of their faith both of these sisters were tortured by their husbands, with whom they did not wish to live after their baptism, and were then released. Having been freed from marriage, they lived God-pleasing lives until their deaths. Dionysius and Pelagia, at first betrothed to one another, when they heard the apostolic preaching did not enter into married life but devoted themselves to ascetic labors. Pelagia ended her life as a martyr for the faith, and Dionysius was appointed bishop by the apostle. Prince Misdaeus, the husband of Tertiana, whose wife and son Azanes were baptized by Thomas, condemned the apostle to death and sent five soldiers, who pierced him with five spears. And so the Holy Apostle Thomas gave up his soul into the hands of his Christ. Before his death he too, like the other apostles, was miraculously transported to Jerusalem for the funeral of the Most Holy Theotokos. But having arrived late, he grieved bitterly, and at his entreaty they opened the tomb of the Most Holy and Most Pure One, but did not find her body in it. The Lord had taken His Mother to His heavenly abodes. And so Holy Thomas, by his unbelief there, confirmed the faith in the Resurrection of the Lord, and by his tardiness here, revealed to us the wondrous glorification of the Mother of God.
