The International Prester John Project: How A Global Legend Was Created Across Six Centuries

On the Arrival of the Partriarch of the Indians to Rome under Pope Calixtus II

De Adventu patriarchae Indorum ad Urbem sub Calixto papa secundo (1122)

Although de Adventu does not invoke the name "Prester John" directly, its linking of a rich Christian patriarch of India and the figure of St. Thomas allows scholars to see it as one of the early, potentially direct influences on the Letter of Prester John.
 
Read Latin text on Google Books (p. 837-843)
 
On the Miracles of St Thomas:
 
26. A short distance outside the walls of the city [Hulna] is a mountain, surrounded everywhere by the waters of the deepest lake, which extends in height out of the water, at the top of which stands the mother church of St. Thomas the Apostle… During the year the aforementioned mountain, where the church of St. Thomas is located, is not accessible to anyone, nor would anyone without cause dare to approach, but the patriarch who must go there in order to celebrate the sacred mysteries, and in the church people from everywhere are allowed entrance only once a year. 29. For, eight days before and after the approaching feast day, the level of the water surrounding the mountain so greatly diminishes that it is hard to tell there was any water there at all; from this place there, people from everywhere came together [to visit the sanctuary of St Thomas]
 
From Slessarev, Prester John: The Letter and the Legend:  
 
“The first Western sources to record the miracles performed by St. Thomas and to announce the victory of Prester John over a Moslem army had one common characteristic… Both accounts contain legendary elements, and while in the case of St. Thomas such a background was regarded as more or less natural, Prester John has been almost exclusively viewed in a historical setting. Yet he too was at least partially clothed in the garb of legend, and the connections between the two traditions want examination” (9).
 
“The anonymous author called the Indian prelate Patriarch John and let him travel for a year from his home country to Constantinople where he was to be confirmed in his position and invested with a pallium. Here in the imperial city he became acquainted with papal envoys who had come from Rome to negotiate an end to the unfortunate split between the Greek and Roman churches… the Patriarch begged the papal emissaries to take him along on their return so that he might see Rome… and it was at a papal reception in the Lateran palace that the Indian dignitary told the story of St. Thomas’ miracle-working hand (10-11).

The city over which he ruled… was the capital of India and its name was Hulna. In circumference it extended for four days’ journey and its walls were so thick that two Roman chariots set abreast could be driven on them. Through the middle of the city flowed the River Physon on its course from the earthly paradise. Its waters were crystal clear and they were full of gold and precious stones. Hulna’s population consisted exclusively of Christians among whom there were no heretics or unbelievers, because such persons either came to their senses or died (11).

 

From Silverberg, The Realm of Prester John:

 
The city of Hulna is unknown to geographers; the story of the miraculously replenished oil lamp was probably borrowed from St. Gregory of Tour’s account of the pilgrim Theodore’s journey to the shrine of St. Thomas in India; two other passages of the tale were surely taken from one of the sixth-century Latin translations of the Acts of Thomas-in which, referring to the transfer of the saint’s body to Edessa, it is noted that the body ‘was placed into a silver casket that hung on silver chains,’ and that in the city of Edessa ‘no heretic, no Jew, no idolator can stay alive’ (31)”
 
More on St. Thomas and medieval Christianity in India.

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