St. Thomas' Church, Thuruthur

St. Thomas' Church at Thuruthur, or Thuruthoor, belongs to the Roman Catholic diocese of Kottapuram in Kerala, and comes under the Muziris Heritage Project. It stands on a small hill that early Jewish spice traders coming to Crangannore called Mount Sinai. Their documents and the name itself have led to a belief that a synagogue once stood here. Tradition also holds that St. Thomas came to pray on the hill after landing at Musiris.

The site once had a shrine of palm leaves, which later became a sub-station of Thuruthipuram Parish. Local accounts tell of early Christians who heard the bells at night and came to see a divine aura around the statue of St. Thomas. Believers built the renovated church seen today. People of different faiths come for its healing well, said to have begun as a miraculous spring that St. Thomas found, and to stay full even in the hottest summers.