{"id":567838,"date":"2026-04-20T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/?p=567838"},"modified":"2026-04-20T17:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T14:00:00","slug":"apostle-thomas-resurrection-divinity-patriarch-daniel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/apostle-thomas-resurrection-divinity-patriarch-daniel\/","title":{"rendered":"Apostle Thomas affirmed both Christ\u2019s resurrection and divinity, Romanian Patriarch says"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cSaint Thomas the Apostle confessed both the visible and tangible God and the invisible God. This is Thomas\u2019s great transformation\u2014that he confessed not only Christ\u2019s resurrection, but also His divinity,\u201d Patriarch Daniel of the Romanian Orthodox Church said on Sunday at the historic \u201cSaint George\u201d Chapel of the Patriarchal Residence.<\/strong><\/p>\n

He underlined that the Apostle Thomas did more than believe\u2014he bore witness.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hymns of today\u2019s service show that when Saint Thomas, whom some of the Holy Fathers call Blessed Thomas, sought to know the truth of the Resurrection, he helped all later generations become convinced of it.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThomas had doubt, but then he went beyond saying \u2018I believe\u2019 and declared: \u2018My Lord and my God.\u2019 He recognised that Jesus of Nazareth, though seen as a man, is by nature God as a person\u2014the Lord of life and the eternal God who grants eternal life to humanity,\u201d the Patriarch explained.<\/p>\n

Sight beyond the senses<\/h2>\n

Patriarch Daniel said that Thomas touched a physical body and confessed the divinity of the One who had been crucified and risen.<\/p>\n

\u201cFaith is a spiritual vision beyond sensory perception, beyond physical sight. It is a way of knowing, a gift of God given to all people since the creation of humanity.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He added that when God said, \u201cLet us make man in Our image and likeness,\u201d He made humanity capable of a relationship with Him because humans bear His image.<\/p>\n

\u201cMan was created in fact according to the image of the communion of the Holy Trinity. That is why a mysterious plural is used\u2014\u2018in Our image and likeness,\u2019 not \u2018in My image and likeness,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sunday, the day of encounter<\/h2>\n

Patriarch Daniel also stressed the importance of Sunday as the day of encounter with the Risen Christ.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis encounter is realised through Communion with the Body and Blood of the Lord. As Saint Cyril of Alexandria said in the 5th century, the celebration of the Holy Eucharist is a confession of Christ\u2019s crucifixion and resurrection.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThe reward or fruit of living faith is the salvation of the soul\u2014that is, the union of the faithful person with the living eternal God,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

At the end of his homily, Patriarch Daniel urged the faithful to cultivate faith and to recognise that all things, visible and invisible, are created by God.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Photo: Lumina Newspaper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Photo: Lumina Newspaper<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cSaint Thomas the Apostle confessed both the visible and tangible God and the invisible God. This is Thomas\u2019s great transformation\u2014that he confessed not only Christ\u2019s resurrection, but also His divinity,\u201d Patriarch Daniel of the Romanian Orthodox Church said on Sunday at the historic \u201cSaint George\u201d Chapel of the Patriarchal Residence. He underlined that the Apostle…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":567697,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[11542,37282,66,21596],"class_list":["post-567838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homilies","tag-apostle-thomas","tag-christs-divinity","tag-patriarch-daniel","tag-patriarchs-homilies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}