Holy Prophet Amos (VIII c. BC)

The holy Prophet Amos, the third of the twelve minor prophets, lived in the eighth century before the Nativity of Christ. At that time the Hebrew state was divided into two kingdoms, Judah and Israel. In Jerusalem Uzziah, king of the Jews, reigned, while the ten tribes of Israel, which had separated from them and fallen away from the true God, were ruled by the idol-worshipping Jeroboam II. He set up the idol of a golden calf in Bethel and worshipped it together with his whole kingdom, fallen into lawlessness.

The Prophet Amos was a Jew from the village of Tekoa. The Lord called this simple and unlearned shepherd, but one strengthened by fervent faith and divine zeal, to the prophetic ministry and sent him to Israel to denounce Jeroboam, who reviled the law, and its inhabitants who had gone astray. Amos foretold to them the calamities that were to fall upon the kingdom of Israel and the pagan peoples living round about for their godlessness. For this he often had to endure beatings and persecution, but he kept returning to Bethel, reminded the Israelites of the wrath that was coming, and called them to repentance. The prophet was especially hated by the priest of the idol-temple, Amaziah. Amos foretold to the idol-worshipper and to his whole house that their end was near. Amaziah’s son Ozias struck the saint on the head with a club and wounded him mortally. The dying prophet barely reached his native village and died there around 783 before the Nativity of Christ.