Santhome Church has been an important religious shrine as it is one of the three churches in the world that have been built on the tombs of the apostles. Romes’s St. Peter’s Basilica and Santiago de Compostela Cathedral in Spain are the other two churches built on the tombs of Saint Peter and Saint James respectively. St. Thomas is also referred to as Didymus. He is believed to have landed in Kerala in 52 A. D and since then has been preaching Christianity until he was martyred in AD 72. He was killed on St. Thomas Mount with a lance that was pierced from his back.Portugese who arrived in India in 1500 A D found the tomb of St. Thomas and built the church over the tomb. Britishers had reconstructed the church in 1893 and in 1896 it was consecrated by da Silva, the first Bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese in India. Pope Pius XII gave the church the status of a Basilica Minor in the year 1956.