Holy Apostle Thaddeus of the Seventy (+c. 44)

The holy Apostle Thaddeus was a Jew by race; he was born in the Syrian city of Edessa. Having come to Jerusalem for a feast, he heard the preaching of John the Baptist, received the baptism of repentance at his hand in the river Jordan, and stayed in Palestine. Afterwards the blessed one saw the Saviour and became His disciple. The Lord chose him among the seventy whom He “sent… two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come” (Luke 10:1). After the Ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven Thaddeus preached in Syria and Mesopotamia. He came to Edessa too and converted to Christianity the prince Abgar, the people, and the priests.

According to tradition, when the saint first entered Abgar’s chamber, the prince, amazed by the unearthly light shining from his face, came out to meet him and bowed down to the ground. But the courtiers, to whom this radiance remained invisible, could not understand why their ruler paid such honour to a poor pilgrim. Thaddeus’s preaching was accompanied by many miracles (Abgar wrote of them to Narses, king of Syria). The blessed apostle founded a church in Edessa. Abgar wished to reward him generously, but the saint refused the gifts and went on to other cities to preach. At last Thaddeus came to the Phoenician city of Berytus (Beirut) and reposed there in peace in the year 44 (this account is taken from the Slavonic Menaion. According to the testimony of other sources, the holy father died in Edessa, and according to Armenian tradition, after many kinds of torture he was beheaded with the sword in the region of Pitaz on 21 December 50).