Holy Apostles Sosthenes, Apollos, Cephas, Caesar and Epaphroditus, of the Seventy (I)

The holy Apostles Sosthenes, Apollos, Cephas, Caesar and Epaphroditus, of the Seventy (I). Before his conversion the Apostle Sosthenes was the chief ruler of the synagogue of Corinth. The holy Apostle Paul brought him to the faith of Christ and made him his helper in his apostolic labours. In his epistle to the Church of Corinth Saint Paul greeted the flock in the name of both: “Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother” (1 Cor. 1:1). Later the holy Apostle Sosthenes was consecrated Bishop of Corinth.

Of the holy Apostle Apollos the Acts of the Apostles tell thus: “And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus. This man was instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly. And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him: who, when he was come, helped them much which had believed through grace: for he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publickly, shewing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ” (Acts 18:24–28). Saint Apollos faithfully helped Saint Paul. The chief of the apostles says of the spread of Christianity in Corinth: “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase” (1 Cor. 3:6). Later Saint Apollos became Bishop of Smyrna.

The holy Apostle Cephas, according to tradition, was Bishop of Iconium. It is thought that it is of him that the Apostle Paul writes in the Epistle to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 15:5).

The holy Apostle Epaphroditus was a fellow labourer of Saint Paul, who sent him to the Philippians. Later he became Bishop of Adriaca (Italy).