KING ALFRED AND ST.

THOMAS IN
INDIA – From some British Museum documents
Alfred Coin
King Alfred the Great of England
on a ninth century Anglo Saxon
Coin in the British Museum.
- Copy in the Menachery Collection 1975.

The Saxon Chronicle

A page of the Saxon Chronicle begun
by King Alfred.
British Museum Ms., London.
- Xerox in the Menachery Collection 1975.
The Alfred Jewel
This is the Alfred Jewel obtained
from the place where King
Alfred the Great, before winning
the decisive battle, is said to have
burnt the cake of the woman who
had given him shelter during his
days in hiding. Bedecked with
precious stones it is made in gold
and has an inscription saying:
“I was made by King Alfred”.
There is also a portrait in enamel
under the crystal.
The Ashmolean Museum,
Oxford
- Photo in the Menachery Collection 1975.
.
Ashmolean Museum of Art and
Archaeology, Oxford, England.

Alfred’s Gifts to “Thomas in India”

A translation of the passage in the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for DCCCLXXXIII
(DCCCLXXXIV) [883 / 884 A. D.] referring
to the gifts sent by King Alfred to
“Thomas in India”.
Benjamin Thorpe, II, 1861, British Museum.
- Copy in the Menachery Collection 1975.
 King Alfred’s Embassy to India
And what seems stranger than all, he
sent an embassy all the way to India,
with alms for the Christians there,
called the Christians of Saint Thomas
and Saint Bartholomew.
Old English History, London, 1869
[British Museum copy].
- Xerox in the Menachery Collection 1975.

Swithelm brings back

Pearls and Spices
for King Alfred
from India
On one occasion to the
Indian Christians at
Meliapur (Mylapore)
also (Alfred sent gifts).
Swithelm, the bearer of
the royal alms, brought
back to the king several
oriental pearls, and
aromatic liquors.
History of England, 1854.
- Xerox in the Menachery
Collection 1975.
King Alfred sending gifts to Saint
Thomas in India

Various British Museum Ms. versions

of King Alfred sending gifts to Saint
Thomas in India according to the
Anglo Saxon Chronicles (Thorpe, I, 1861).
[“The only use I had of having studied Old
English under Prof. E. P. Narayana Pillai
& Ayyappa Panicker in the Trivandrum
University College and under Fr. Theodotius
CMI was when I had to decipher these
lines” – Prof. G. M.]
- Copy in the Menachery Collection 1975.

From the Anglo Saxon

Chronicles for 883(Tr.)
[A. D. 883.] The aforesaid army
Dragged their ships up the river
called Sealdad (Seheld) against
the stream, to a convent of nuns
called Cundath (Conde) and
there remained a whole year. Asser
bishop of Sherborne, died, and was
succeeded (as bishop) by Swethelm,
who carried King Alfred’s Alms to St.
Thomas in India and returned
thence in safety. [Also about the martial
success of King Alfred and of the Pope’s
gift of a piece of the True Cross.]
- Copy in the Menachery Collection 1975.