149 The king ordered them to do their utmost to pull it up, but they never managed to move it. When Blessed St. Thomas saw how desperate they were to pull it up, he went to see the king and told him that he wanted to pull the piece of wood up on to dry land, providing that the king would give him a piece of land on which to build a church in praise of Our Lord who had sent him there. And the king mocked him, saying that if he had seen that with all his power he had not been able to move it, how could he be so bold as to pull it. St. Thomas replied that he would pull it with the power of God, who is almighty. The king said straightaway that he would give him all the land he needed, and having been given and granted it, he went to the place where the piece of wood was and tied a rope around it. And with the grace of God, he started to pull it up on dry land without any help, and the piece of wood came with him to the place where he wanted to build the church. Upon seeing such an extraordinary miracle, the king ordered him to be allowed to do whatever he wanted with the piece of wood and the land he had given him and be shown all respect and favours. Many local people considered him to be a saint and became Christians, but the King did not want to. The apostle who they call Matoma sent for many local carpenters and sawyers, who started to cut up the wood, which was so large that they made the entire church out of it, and he made it a custom among the Mouros and Indians, that when workers come to build something they are given some rice to eat and when they leave in the evening, they are each given a fanão; Blessed St. Thomas took a measuring cup for measuring rice at midday each day, and gave each one a cupful of sand and turned it into excellent rice; and when they were leaving in the evening, he would give each one a small lump of wood and turn it into a fanão and this was how the building was finished, and all the workers were kept very happy. Having seen these miracles and many others that our Lord performed
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