Council of the 70 Apostles

Every year on January 17, the Orthodox Church celebrates the Council of the 70 Apostles The holiday was founded to show that each of the seventy saints is worthy of equal veneration All of them were chosen by Jesus Christ in the last year of his earthly life to preach the Gospel and serve the Lord The fact that Jesus Christ chose seventy more disciples in addition to twelve is reported in the Gospel of Luke This happened in the city of Jerusalem after the third Passover of Jesus Christ He gave the chosen apostles instructions that they were to follow After the descent of the Holy Spirit took place, the seventy apostles went to different countries to preach the Word of God Some of them became associates of the first twelve disciples of Christ Many of them suffered martyrdom, and some were imprisoned However, not all the disciples chosen by Jesus were able to fulfill their great mission, which was entrusted to them by the Lord The Orthodox Church approved the celebration of the Council of the 70 Apostles in order to show the equality of each of them and in the future to prevent possible disagreements in their veneration The first 12 apostles are directly mentioned in the Gospel The closest chosen ones of Jesus Christ were Andrew, Peter, Philip, James, John, Matthew, Thomas, Zebedee, Matthew, Jacob, Bartholomew, Judas and James Alpheus After the betrayal of Judas, Matthias was elected in his place Thus, the number of nearby students was replenished Many of those who were included in the full list of the seventy apostles became bishops in new churches and were the most devoted preachers of Orthodoxy They are credited with many feats aimed at fighting representatives of paganism The Church honors the memory of these saints as preachers of the doctrine of the Consubstantial and Indivisible Trinity A complete list of the apostles cannot be found in the books of the New Testament, but information about them is contained in the Menaion-Cheti The 70 followers of Christ include: Mark the Evangelist, James the Righteous, Cleopas, Joseph, Barnabas, Simeon, Luke the Evangelist, Ananias, Thadley, Prochorus, Philip, Stephen the Archdeacon, Silas, Nicanor, Archippus, Timon, Epaphras, Parmenes, Onesimus, Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Urvan, Silouan, Amplia, Criscent, Stachy, Andronicus, Crispus, Epenet, Asinkrit, Narcissus, Rufus, Apellius, Agave, Rodion, Aristobulus, Sosipatra, Phlegon, Jason, Hermu, Lucia, Patrov, Hermia, Lina, Philologus, Gaius, Clement, Olympanos, Onesiphorus, Evoda, Quartus, Tertius, Erastus, Mark, Sosthenes, Zina, Codratus, Carp, Apollos, Epaphroditus, Tychicus, Achaicus, Aristarchus, Trophimus, Puda, Fortunatus, Akilu, Artema, John, Dionysius the Areopagite The fame of the apostolic acts has reached our days The disciples of Jesus Christ invested a lot of effort and even gave their lives for the general enlightenment of peoples Apostle Andrew spent a lot of time in Rus' One of the seventy saints, Clement, preached in the southern regions He was appointed by the Apostle Peter to the rank of bishop of the Roman Church Clement was forced to make a sacrifice to the pagan gods After disobedience, the pagans exiled him to the quarries, which were located in Chersonesus Once on the territory of modern Crimea, the preacher contributed to the acceptance of holy baptism by local residents Having learned about this, Emperor Trajan ordered Clement to be drowned in the sea Thanks to the sermons of the saints whom Paul and Peter ordained as bishops, people from various countries accepted Orthodoxy The religion spread from the territory of modern European states to India and Africa Many people know the holy acts of the evangelists Mark and Luke, who were witnesses to the earthly life of Christ and his followers According to church legend, on the night of Jesus’ Passion on the Cross, Mark, wrapped in a cloak, followed him, but ran away from the soldiers Luke was also one of the seventy apostles who preached the approach of the Kingdom of God