Holy Apostles Evodius (†66) and Onesiphorus (†after 67) of the Seventy — September 7 / September 20 (Julian Calendar)

On this day, September 7 according to the Julian Calendar (September 20 civil calendar), the Georgian Orthodox Church commemorates the Holy Apostles Evodius and Onesiphorus of the Seventy. The holy apostle Evodius, one of the Seventy, was the first bishop of Antioch in Syria after the apostle Peter. His successor, the hieromartyr Ignatius the God-bearer (commemorated December 20), mentions the holy father in his epistle to the Antiochians: “Remember your blessed father Evodius, who was appointed by the apostles as your first shepherd.”

The holy apostle labored for twenty-seven years in the rank of hierarch, and in the reign of the emperor Nero (54–68), at the age of sixty-six, he gave up his soul to the Lord as a martyr.

The holy apostle Onesiphorus is mentioned by the apostle Paul in his epistle to Timothy: “The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain: but, when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me. The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day: and in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well” (2 Timothy 1:16–18). Saint Onesiphorus was first appointed bishop in Colophon (Asia Minor), and later governed the flock of Corinth.

He died a martyr’s death on the shore of the Hellespont, in the city of Parium (near Ephesus), where he had gone to preach the faith of Christ among the pagans. The lawless ones seized the Lord’s chosen one, brought him to the idol temple, and demanded that he offer incense to the pagan gods; when they received a firm refusal in reply, they tied him, together with his servant Porphyrius, to wild horses and dragged them along the ground until they gave up their souls. According to the Roman Martyrology, Saint Onesiphorus died on September 16.