Holy Apostles Herodion, Agabus, Rufus, Asyncritus, Phlegon, and Hermas

Life

They were all of the Seventy Apostles. The Apostle Paul mentions them all in his epistles. Herodion was a kinsman of Paul. Salute, Paul writes to the Romans, Herodion my kinsman (16:11). Herodion suffered much from the Jews as Bishop of Neopatras: they beat him with rods upon the head, struck him with stones upon the mouth, and pierced him with knives. And when they left him as dead, Saint Herodion arose and continued to serve the apostles. In Rome he assisted the Apostle Peter, and was beheaded together with many other Christians on that very same day when Peter was crucified. Saint Agabus possessed the spirit of prophecy. In the Acts of the Apostles two of his prophecies are mentioned. First, he foretold the great famine throughout the whole world, which indeed came to pass in the time of Emperor Claudius. And second, when he met the Apostle Paul in Caesarea, who was going to Jerusalem, Agabus took Paul's belt and bound his own hands and feet, saying: Thus saith the Holy Spirit: the man whose belt this is, him shall the Jews so bind in Jerusalem (21:11). Saint Rufus was Bishop of Thebes in Greece. The Apostle Paul mentions him also: Salute Rufus chosen in the Lord (Rom. 16:13). He was Bishop of Hyrcania in Asia. Saint Phlegon, who is mentioned in the same passage, was Bishop of Marathon, a city in Thrace. Saint Hermas, mentioned with the others, was Bishop in Dalmatia. All of them, as bees of Christ, carried the honey of the Gospel to various lands, suffering much for the love of Christ. All of them departed to the eternal Kingdom of the beloved Christ.

From the Hymn of Praise

### THE HOLY APOSTLESThe chosen ones of God, the apostles holy,Ran swiftly in the race and reached the goal.The vain world they despised, toward God they stretched,The earthly they sacrificed, the eternal they gained.