The Orthodox calendar of April 21 is dedicated to the memory of six apostles from seventy: Herodion, Agab, Asyncritus, Ruth, Phlegon and Hermas. Unlike the Savior’s inner circle, the twelve disciples, this circle of followers was sent to the ministry a little later.
According to the Gospel of Luke, the Lord chose another seventy people and sent them in pairs to the settlements he planned to visit personally. The exact list of all the elected representatives of history is unknown. At the beginning of the fourth century, the chronicler Eusebius of Caesarea noted that if the names of the twelve apostles are familiar to everyone according to Scripture, then there is simply no complete list of seventy disciples. Nevertheless, some biographies are recorded in church tradition and New Testament texts.
Among those who are remembered today is the figure of Herodion. He was related to the Apostle Paul and shared with him the hardships of missionary roads. Later, in the Balkans, Paul and Peter entrusted him with the episcopacy in Patara. The fiery speeches of the new bishop aroused the hatred of idolaters. The crowd brutally beat him and stabbed him. According to the Bible, God brought him back to life unharmed. Years later, Herodion shared the fate of the Apostle Peter: in 67, in the time of Nero, he was beheaded with a sword simultaneously with the execution of St. Olympus.
His companion Agave is known as a visionary. In the Acts of the Holy Apostles two of his predictions are recorded: about the coming widespread famine under the emperor Claudius and about the sufferings that awaited Paul in the Jewish capital. He went around with the news of Christ many lands, attracting the pagan population to the faith.
About the ministry of four more preachers narrates the letter of the Apostle Paul to the Roman Christians. Welcomed there, Ruth later took care of the community in the Greek city of Thebes. Asinkrit headed the pulpit in Hyrcania in the vastness of Asia Minor, Flegont led the flock in the Thracian Marathon, and Herm preached in the territory of Dalmatia. All six completed the earth’s journey as martyrs.
Memorial Days
21 April
The Holy Land Charitable Foundation
Lives of Saints
