Equal-to-apostles or equal-to-the-apostles (; la, aequalis apostolis; ar, معادل الرسل, ''muʿādil ar-rusul''; ka, მოციქულთასწორი, tr; ro, întocmai cu Apostolii; russian: равноапостольный, ''ravnoapostol'nyj'';
Bulgarian
Bulgarian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria
* Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group
* Bulgarian language, a Slavic language
* Bulgarian alphabet
* A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria
* Bul ...
and
Serbian: , ''ravnoapostolni''; al, i barabartë me Apostojët;
Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* So ...
: рівноапостольний) is a special title given to some
saint
In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of Q-D-Š, holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denominat ...
s in
Eastern Orthodoxy
Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholic Church, Catholicism and Protestantism.
Like the Pentarchy of the first m ...
and in
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
ism. The title is bestowed as a recognition of these saints' outstanding service in the spreading and assertion of
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
, comparable to that of the original
apostles.
Examples
Below is a partial list of saints who are called ''equal-to-the-apostles'':
*
Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to crucifixion of Jesus, his cru ...
(1st century)
*
Photine, the Samaritan woman at the well (1st century)
*
Thekla (1st century)
*Saint Apphia (1st century)
*
Abercius of Hieropolis
__NOTOC__
Abercius of Hieropolis (Greek , died c. 167) was a bishop of Hierapolis at the time of Marcus Aurelius, also known as Abercius Marcellus. He was supposedly the successor to Papias.
Abercius is said to have evangelized Syria and Mesopo ...
(2nd century)
*
Helena of Constantinople
Flavia Julia Helena ''Augusta'' (also known as Saint Helena and Helena of Constantinople, ; grc-gre, Ἑλένη, ''Helénē''; AD 246/248– c. 330) was an '' Augusta'' and Empress of the Roman Empire and mother of Emperor Constantine th ...
(c. 250 – c. 330)
*
Constantine the Great
Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to Constantine the Great and Christianity, convert to Christiani ...
(c. 272 – 337)
*
Nino (c. 296 – c. 338 or 340), baptizer of the Georgians
*
Mirian III of Iberia
Mirian III ( ka, მირიან III) was a king of Iberia or Kartli (Georgia), contemporaneous to the Roman emperor Constantine the Great ( r. 306–337). He was the founder of the royal Chosroid dynasty.
According to the early medieval Ge ...
(died 361), first Christian Georgian monarch
*
Nana of Iberia
Nana ( ka, ნანა) was a Queen consort of the Kingdom of Iberia as the second wife of Mirian III in the 4th century. For her role in the conversion of Georgians to Christianity she is regarded by the Georgian Orthodox Church as saint and ...
(4th century)
*
Patrick of Ireland
Saint Patrick ( la, Patricius; ga, Pádraig ; cy, Padrig) was a fifth-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland. Known as the "Apostle of Ireland", he is the primary patron saint of Ireland, the other patron saints be ...
(5th century)
*
Photios I of Constantinople
Photios I ( el, Φώτιος, ''Phōtios''; c. 810/820 – 6 February 893), also spelled PhotiusFr. Justin Taylor, essay "Canon Law in the Age of the Fathers" (published in Jordan Hite, T.O.R., & Daniel J. Ward, O.S.B., "Readings, Cases, Materia ...
()
*
Cyril
Cyril (also Cyrillus or Cyryl) is a masculine given name. It is derived from the Greek name Κύριλλος (''Kýrillos''), meaning 'lordly, masterful', which in turn derives from Greek κυριος ('' kýrios'') 'lord'. There are various varia ...
(827 – 869)
*
Rastislav of Moravia
Rastislav or Rostislav, also known as St. Rastislav, (Latin: ''Rastiz'', Greek: Ῥασισθλάβος / ''Rhasisthlábos'') was the second known ruler of Moravia (846–870).Spiesz ''et al.'' 2006, p. 20. Although he started his reign as vass ...
(870)
*
Methodius (815 – 885)
*
Saint Angelar
Saint Angelar (died probably soon after 885 AD) was a medieval Bulgarian saint and Slavic enlightener. He was one of the most prominent disciples of Saints Cyril and Methodius. Along with them and Saint Gorazd, Saint Clement of Ohrid, Naum of Pr ...
(died after 885 AD)
*Saint Gorazd (9th century)
*
Boris I of Bulgaria
Boris I, also known as Boris-Mihail (Michael) and ''Bogoris'' ( cu, Борисъ А҃ / Борисъ-Михаилъ bg, Борис I / Борис-Михаил; died 2 May 907), was the ruler of the First Bulgarian Empire in 852–889. At ...
(died 907)
*
Saint Naum
Saint Naum ( Bulgarian and Macedonian: Свети Наум, ''Sveti Naum''), also known as Naum of Ohrid or Naum of Preslav (c. 830 – December 23, 910) was a medieval Bulgarian writer, enlightener, one of the Seven Apostles of the First Bu ...
(died 910)
*
Clement of Ohrid
Saint Clement of Ohrid (Bulgarian, Serbian and Macedonian: Свети Климент Охридски, ; el, Ἅγιος Κλήμης τῆς Ἀχρίδας; sk, svätý Kliment Ochridský; – 916) was one of the first medieval Bulgarian ...
(died 916)
*
Saint Sava
Saint Sava ( sr, Свети Сава, Sveti Sava, ; Old Church Slavonic: ; gr, Άγιος Σάββας; 1169 or 1174 – 14 January 1236), known as the Enlightener, was a Serbian prince and Orthodox monk, the first Archbishop of the autocephalou ...
(1169 or 1174 – 1236)
*
Olga of Kiev
Olga ( orv, Вольга, Volĭga; (); russian: Ольга (); uk, Ольга (). Old Norse: '; Lithuanian language, Lith: ''Alge''; Christian name: ''Elena''; c. 890–925 – 969) was a regent of Kievan Rus' for her son Sviatoslav I of Kiev, ...
(c. 890 – 969)
*
Vladimir the Great
Vladimir I Sviatoslavich or Volodymyr I Sviatoslavych ( orv, Володимѣръ Свѧтославичь, ''Volodiměrъ Svętoslavičь'';, ''Uladzimir'', russian: Владимир, ''Vladimir'', uk, Володимир, ''Volodymyr''. Se ...
(c. 958 – 1015)
*
Saint Olaf of Norway
Olaf II Haraldsson ( – 29 July 1030), later known as Saint Olaf (and traditionally as St. Olave), was King of Norway from 1015 to 1028. Son of Harald Grenske, a petty king in Vestfold, Norway, he was posthumously given the title '' Rex Perp ...
(c. 995 – 1030), baptiser of Norway
*
Stephen I of Hungary
Stephen I, also known as King Saint Stephen ( hu, Szent István király ; la, Sanctus Stephanus; sk, Štefan I. or Štefan Veľký; 975 – 15 August 1038), was the last Grand Prince of the Hungarians between 997 and 1000 or 1001, and the f ...
(969 – 1038)
*
Cosmas of Aetolia
Kosmas the Aetolian, sometimes Cosmas the Aetolian or Patrokosmas "Father Kosmas" ( el, Κοσμᾶς ὁ Αἰτωλός, ''Kosmas Etolos''; born between 1700 and 1714 – died 1779), was a monk in the Greek Orthodox Church. He is recognized as ...
(1714 – 1779)
*
Innocent of Alaska
Saint Innocent of Alaska (August 26, 1797 – March 31, 1879, O.S.), also known as Saint Innocent Metropolitan of Moscow ( Russian: Святитель Иннокентий Митрополит Московский) was a Russian Orthodox mi ...
(1797 – 1879)
*
Nicholas of Japan
Saint Nicholas (Kasatkin), Equal-to-the-Apostles, Archbishop of Japan, born Ivan Dmitrovich Kasatkin (russian: Иван Дмитриевич Касаткин; – 16 February 1912) was a Russian Orthodox priest, monk, and bishop. He introdu ...
(1836 – 1912)
Other usages of the term
Political
As
George Ostrogorsky
Georgiy Aleksandrovich Ostrogorskiy (russian: Георгий Александрович Острогорский; 19 January 1902 – 24 October 1976), known in Serbian as Georgije Aleksandrovič Ostrogorski ( sr-Cyrl, Георгије Алекс ...
relates, the insistence of pre-Christian Roman emperors on being
worshipped as gods had always been a fundamental stumbling block for early Christians (see
Anti-Christian policies in the Roman Empire
The persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire occurred, sporadically and usually locally, throughout the Roman Empire, beginning in the 1st century CE and ending in the 4th century CE. Originally a polytheistic empire in the traditions of R ...
). Nevertheless, even with the advent of
Christian emperors, of which
Constantine the Great
Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to Constantine the Great and Christianity, convert to Christiani ...
was the first, the sovereign's power maintained a distinctly divine flavour.
Indeed, to use Ostrogorsky's more strongly worded phrasing, "the
Roman-Hellenistic cult of the sovereign lived on in the Christian
Byzantine empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
in all its ancient glory."
The Greek term for "Equal-to-the-Apostles", ''isapóstolos,'' was used in the late Roman/Byzantine empire to contribute to this divine imperial image.
Constantine himself seems to have had this in mind when, according to
Eusebius of Caesarea
Eusebius of Caesarea (; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος ; 260/265 – 30 May 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilus (from the grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος τοῦ Παμφίλου), was a Greek historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christia ...
, he designed the
Church of the Holy Apostles
The Church of the Holy Apostles ( el, , ''Agioi Apostoloi''; tr, Havariyyun Kilisesi), also known as the ''Imperial Polyándreion'' (imperial cemetery), was a Byzantine Eastern Orthodox church in Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman E ...
to be his tomb in Constantinople:
Symbolism aside, modern scholars offer differing accounts as to whether Eusebius ever used the actual title of ''isapóstolos'' in reference to Constantine.
John Julius Norwich
John Julius Cooper, 2nd Viscount Norwich, (15 September 1929 – 1 June 2018), known as John Julius Norwich, was an English popular historian, travel writer, and television personality.
Background
Norwich was born at the Alfred House Nursing ...
maintains that "for the last few years of his life, Constantine had regularly used the title ''isapóstolos''", though he does not cite a primary source. The
New Catholic Encyclopedia
The ''New Catholic Encyclopedia'' (NCE) is a multi-volume reference work on Roman Catholic history and belief edited by the faculty of The Catholic University of America. The NCE was originally published by McGraw-Hill in 1967. A second edition, ...
(supplement 2010) states that Eusebius did refer to Constantine with this title, although it too does not cite a primary source.
Aidan Nichols
John Christopher "Aidan" Nichols (born 17 September 1948) is an English academic and Catholic priest.
Nichols served as the first John Paul II Memorial Visiting Lecturer at the University of Oxford for 2006 to 2008, the first lectureship of Ca ...
also shares this view, positing that Eusebius did indeed describe Constantine as ''isapóstolos'', but that a later editor, or "interpolator," had reduced his status to ''isepiskopos''—Equal-to-a-Bishop—so as to make Constantine seem more modest. In contrast to this, Jonathan Bardill states rather bluntly that our sources do not directly speak of Constantine as an equal of the apostles until the 5th century (that is, after Eusebius).
This characterization was not without its problems, however. As alluded to above, though Constantine himself may very much have intended to be recognized as ''isapóstolos'', many theologians and churchmen were made uneasy at this prospect. As
Gilbert Dagron explains, the difficulty was not necessarily that Constantine was unworthy (merely immodest, more like), but rather that the title resulted in a very ambiguous mixing of church and state. Thus when
Sozomen
Salamanes Hermias Sozomenos ( grc-gre, Σαλαμάνης Ἑρμείας Σωζομενός; la, Sozomenus; c. 400 – c. 450 AD), also known as Sozomen, was a Roman lawyer and historian of the Christian Church.
Family and home
He was born arou ...
deals with Constantine's funeral in his ecclesiastical history, he makes a point of saying that bishops were afterwards interred in the same place, "for the hierarchical dignity is not only equal in honor to imperial power, but, in sacred places, even takes the ascendancy."
In time, however, the soon to be sainted Constantine would nevertheless become firmly established as ''isapóstolos'', being enshrined as such in the
Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca
The ''Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca'' is a catalogue of Greek hagiographic materials, including ancient literary works on the saints' lives, the translations of their relics, and their miracles, arranged alphabetically by saint. It is us ...
and other Byzantine literature (ex.
Anna Komnene
Anna Komnene ( gr, Ἄννα Κομνηνή, Ánna Komnēnḗ; 1 December 1083 – 1153), commonly Latinized as Anna Comnena, was a Byzantine princess and author of the ''Alexiad'', an account of the reign of her father, the Byzantine emperor, ...
confidently calls him the 13th apostle in the
Alexiad
The ''Alexiad'' ( el, Ἀλεξιάς, Alexias) is a medieval historical and biographical text written around the year 1148, by the Byzantine princess Anna Komnene, daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. It was written in a form of artificial ...
, to whom she likens her father
Alexius
Alexius is the Latinized form of the given name Alexios ( el, Αλέξιος, polytonic , "defender", cf. Alexander), especially common in the later Byzantine Empire. The female form is Alexia ( el, Αλεξία) and its variants such as Alessia ...
). Indeed, in this capacity he proved to be an irresistible model for many later Byzantine rulers, who would regularly make use of the title ''isapóstolos'' themselves—for political—as well as religious reasons.
[Treitinger, Otto. ''Die oströmische Kaiser- und Reichsidee nach ihrer Gestaltung im höfischen Zeremoniell'' (Darmstadt: H. Gentner., 1956), 129f]
References
{{Reflist
Groups of Eastern Orthodox saints
Types of saints
Christian terminology