On the outskirts of the city, close to the airport, is Mount St. Thomas. It was here that the Apostle, St. Thomas, who founded the Syrian Christian Church in Kerala in the 1st century, breathed his last. Here the Portuguese came across what is known as the Bleeding Cross, a stone Cross bearing a Pehbir inscription, with some spots on it resembling blood stains. A church was erected on the hillock, the stone Cross being installed in the wall behind the altar. The church has a picture of the Holy Virgin and Child believed to be one of the seven portraits painted by St. Luke and brought to India by St. Thomas. The antiquity of St. Thomas' traditional connection with Mylapore can be gauged on the basis of the Cross at St. Thomas Mount, Mylapore, which at the lowest limit is of above A.D. 650. A double-headed eagle, holding the sun and the moon in his claws, forms part of the arms of the Hermits of St. Augustine. As the Augustinians had a monastery at Mylapore and many of the Mylapore Bishops were Augustinians, this double-headed eagle is seen on the altars of St. Thomas Mount. A wealthy Armenian Petrus Uscan supplied the funds to build the Marmalong Bridge, portico, steps and walls leading up to the Church of Expectation on St. Thomas Mount in 1726. St. Thomas Mount church is a vaulted one.