The life of the holy Apostle (of seventy) Thaddeus

The memory of August 21 St. Apostle Fadday came from the city of Edessa [Edessa, current Urfa, <unk> city in northern Mesopotamia, on the Euphrates River, from 137 BC the main city of the newly formed Ozroen or Edessa state; in 217 AD according to the R.

In the 4th century, St. Ephrem Sirin founded a theological school in Edessa, which in the 5th century was inclined towards Nestorianism, in favour of which the teacher of the Edessa school, the presbyter Iva, was particularly active.

Edessa was conquered by the Arab caliphs; in 1098 it was taken over by Count Baldwin, who made it the main city of the Edessa principality; in 1144 it was conquered by the Turks and from that time passed from hand to hand until 1637.

He was a Jew by birth and had a thorough knowledge of the Old Testament.

In the days of St. John the Baptist, St. Thaddeus came to Jerusalem; when he heard the preaching of the Lord's Predecessor there and saw the angelic life, Thaddeus was very surprised and accepted the baptism of John the Predecessor.

Shortly thereafter, St. Thaddeus saw our Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh and dwelling among men, heard His teaching and saw the marvelous miracles done by our Lord Jesus Christ, and followed Him.

St. Thaddeus was accepted by the Lord and included in the group of the seventy Apostles, of whom the Gospel says: "The Lord appointed seventy others and sent them forth two by two ahead of him into every city and place to which he himself was going to come".

And the Lord said to them, The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go, I send you forth as lambs into the midst of wolves.

Do not take a purse, bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the way. "When you enter a house, first say,' Peace to this house. 'If it is not, stay at that house, eating and drinking what is offered to you. For the worker deserves his wages. Do not move from house to house.

And when you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, 'The kingdom of God is near you.'

But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, 'Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. Yet know this, that the kingdom of God has come near to you.'

"He who listens to you listens to me; he who rejects you rejects me; but he who rejects me rejects him who sent me".

The seventy - two returned with joy and told the Lord that even the demons submit to them in his name.

After the suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ, the holy Apostles were scattered to preach the gospel throughout the universe; the holy Apostle Thaddeus was sent by the Lord to preach the gospel in the city of Edessa; for our Lord Jesus Christ before

He promised to send one of his holy apostles.

And the Lord said unto him, I will send unto thee an apostle; and he was sick with an incurable disease, leprosy.

Hearing about the wonderful miracles that the Lord Jesus Christ was doing, he longed to see him, to hear his teaching, and to be healed by his power from his grievous disease.

But not daring to hope that the Lord Jesus Christ would come to him personally, he sent a skilled icon painter to the Lord and commissioned him to paint the face of the Lord.

And he sent letters unto the Lord, and wrote of all that he had heard of the Lord, and of his marvelous works, and of his healing of sicknesses, without the use of any medicine, and of plants, and of the sight of the blind, and the walking of the lame, and of the lepers, and of the casting out of evil spirits, and of healing with a word.

He rested the sick, rested the sick, and raised the dead.

When I heard these things about you, I wrote, "I think one of two things about you: either you are God who came down from heaven or you are the Son of God, for you do great and glorious signs.

That is why I am writing you this letter of mine in humility, so that you may exert yourself to come to me and heal me of my incurable disease, which I have suffered for many years. . . .

Our Lord Jesus Christ, seeing Prince Hagar's faith and hope, sent him an unmade image of His Most Holy Face, and also wrote a letter in which he said:

Blessed is the one who believes even though he has not seen me. As it is written: "' Those who have seen me will not believe, but those who have not seen will have eternal life. '

I am going to you, but I must finish my work and go to the Father who sent me.

But when I am taken up to him, I will send one of my disciples to you. He will heal you and give eternal life to those who are with you.

After lovingly embracing the message and worshipping the image of Christ, he soon received considerable relief from his illness, for only a small part of the leprosy remained on his face.

To heal him, the Lord sent the holy Apostle Thaddeus, who healed him completely, not only in body but also in spirit, as will be explained below.

When the holy Apostle Thaddeus came to the city of Edessa, he did not open himself immediately to Prince Aggar, but went first to the house of an acquaintance of his, a Jew named Tobias.

St. Thaddeus stayed with this Jew, performing many miracles of healing by the power of Christ, laying his hands on every sick person and calling on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

News of him spread through the whole region, and people brought to him all the sick, and they were amazed.

After some time, it was reported to Prince Aggar that an unknown man had come from Jerusalem and performed many miracles in the name of Christ.

And when she remembered the promise of Christ to send one of his disciples to her, she said, Is not this he whom the Lord promised to send?

Tobias replied: "I have heard that a certain man has come to your house from Jerusalem, claiming that he can heal the sick in the name of Jesus Christ".

"Yes, sir. You have spoken the truth. There is a man living in my house who does many miracles in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. "Then the prince said", Bring him to me. " Tobias went to St. Thaddeus and said to him,

And the prince of this city called me, and commanded me to bring thee to him, that thou mightest heal him of his sickness. And Thaddeus said, I am indeed sent to him. And they went early the next morning to the prince, and all the nobles and counsellors were assembled to the prince.

When the holy Apostle Thaddeus entered the doors of the palace, the prince looked at him and noticed that the Apostle's face shone with some unusual light.

And all who were there were astonished at the prince's deed, and wondered why he bowed to a common man, seeing not the marvelous light which came from the apostle's face.

Are you a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who promised to send one of his disciples to me to cure me of my disease and to give me and all my family eternal life?

I have come to you because of your great faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

I believed so ardently in the Lord Jesus that I intended to gather an army and go to war against the Jews who crucified the Lord, to avenge their cruelty and malice and to destroy them completely, but I was prevented from doing so by the Roman authorities, to whom our nation is subject.

<unk> Our Lord and God Jesus Christ had no need of human help at all when He suffered from the jealous and cruel Jews; for He Himself could have sent legions of angels if He had willed; but in fulfilling the will of the Father, our Lord suffered for the salvation of the world; and in fulfilling the will of His Father, He

who has gone up to heaven in glory and is seated at his right hand. He is not in need of anyone to avenge him from his enemies, for he has power over all things. He will judge the living and the dead, and will repay each one according to his deeds.

The Holy Apostle Thaddeus spoke to Prince Agarius and to all who were with him many things concerning our Lord Jesus Christ, and when he had brought him to full faith in the Lord, he was baptized.

And it came to pass, when the leprosy was on the face of Hagar, that the leprosy was upon all his flesh.

When the letter (message) of Christ was brought to him and the unhandmade image of the most holy Face of Christ, then for the first time Avgar was healed, his body was cleansed of leprosy, and only a small part of his body, by the will of God, namely his face, remained unhealed until the arrival of the Apostle.

At the same time, another healing took place, not only of the body, but also of the soul, after the arrival of the Apostle by holy baptism; for from the holy bath Prince Aggar came out perfectly healthy.

Not only did he preach, but all his household were baptized, and all who saw the signs and wonders being done by the apostle were baptized.

On the following morning, the governor called the whole city together to hear the word of God.

The apostle of Christ, standing in a high place, began to preach to all the people about the one God, who created heaven and earth, and all things visible and invisible by his almighty power. The holy apostle Thaddeus also told the people how our Lord Jesus Christ came down from heaven to earth, unmistakably incarnated for the sake of

He has prepared for those who do good eternal life in heaven, but for those who do evil eternal torment in hell.

The apostle explained in detail the mystery of God's administration.

When they saw the miraculous signs and wonders that the apostles did, they all believed and praised the Lord. And they were all baptized.

Thus the city of Edessa was sanctified by holy faith in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by holy baptism; after this, temples began to be built here, and presbyters were appointed by the Apostles' direction.

Prince Augurius wanted to thank the Apostle of Christ for his miraculous healing, so he offered him a lot of gold, but the saint refused, saying: If we have left our own, how can we want to receive and acquire anything from others?

After the holy Apostle Thaddeus had established in Edessa the holy faith and piety and directed all things to good, he set out for Mesopotamia [Mesopotamia <unk> a rocky and sandy land, situated between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and extending from Armenia in the north to the Persian Gulf in the south.]; here

He taught many and converted many to Christ, and built synagogues. The holy apostle traveled through many Syrian cities, preaching the good news in the name of Christ.

He then came to the Phoenician city of Beirut [Beirut <unk> the main city of Lebanon. In antiquity Beirut was a Phoenician harbor and bore the name Berytus.

Beirut was destroyed by the Syrian Diotos Tryphon, but was rebuilt by Agrippa under Augustus and turned into a colony for Roman veterans.

Under the later emperors, Beirut was famous for its high school of rhetoric, poetry, and especially law.]; preaching the name of Christ and baptizing many, the holy Apostle Thaddeus rested here in peace about the Lord [The death of St. Thaddeus followed about 44 AD.

<unk> There is a report of the embassy of Narcissus, king of Assyria, to Avgar, prince of Edessa, with a request either to send to him the holy Apostle Thaddeus, or to write to him (Narcissus) about the miracles wrought by this Apostle.

It should be noted that the now remembered Saint Apostle Thaddeus is a different person from Saint Apostle Jude Thaddeus, called Levite, Apostle of the Twelve, whose memory is celebrated on the nineteenth day of the month of June (under this number you can read his life.

In the Prologue, under the present number, above the synagogue now commemorating the holy Apostle Thaddeus, there is the inscription: "To the memory of the holy Apostle Thaddeus, as well as of Levi".

However, it should be noted that the nickname "Levi" was not to be applied to this St. Thaddeus, but to another, the Apostle of the Twelve, as mentioned in Matthew's Gospel (10:3).

Nicéphore Callist, a famous church historian of the 14th century, a monk of the Sofia Monastery in Constantinople, wrote a "Church History" (18 books) about the death of the Byzantine emperor Phocas (c.

It was Nicéphore Callist who said the following: "Saint Judas, not Iscariot, but another, to whom two names were applied: Thaddaeus and Levi, the son of Joseph, brother of James, who was thrown from the roof of the temple [St. Jude the Apostle].

The apostle James, brother of the Lord, son of the righteous Joseph the Handmaid and brother of Judas, Simon (or Simeon) and Joses (or Joseph).

The apostle James was appointed bishop of Jerusalem by the Lord Himself; he was, in the words of the apostle Paul, the pillar of the Church (Gal. 2:9); the apostle James was appointed bishop of Jerusalem by the Lord Himself (Gal. 2:18-19).

St. James presided at the apostolic council of Jerusalem (Acts 15:13), St. James was deeply respected not only by Christians but also by Jews; died a martyr (c.

63 C.E.) on the feast of Pentecost, being thrown from the roof of the temple for publicly confessing the name of Christ; before his death he prayed for his murderers.

He preached the gospel in Judea and Galilee, in Samaria and Idumea, as well as in Arab cities, in Syria and Mesopotamia, then arrived in Edessa, the city of Avgar, where

He preached the gospel of Christ to another Thaddeus, the Apostle of the seventy, and here he completed all that had not been completed by that Thaddeus".

It was because ungodly men had crept in among the believers, turning the undeserved kindness of God into lawlessness and indulging in every sort of sinful activity under the guise of Christian freedom.

This epistle contains part of a dogmatic teaching: about the sacrament of St.

The Trinity, the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the distinction between good and evil angels and the coming Great Judgment; also contains moral teaching: admonition to avoid uncleanness of sin, flesh, blasphemy, pride, disobedience and other vices; the Apostle admonishes all to be constant in duties and positions

And to those who are in the faith, and in prayer, and in love, and to those who go astray, and to those who are heretics.

Thus says Nicophorus Callistus of these two Thaddeus: he calls one (of the twelve Apostles) Levi, and the other (mentioned now), <unk> of the seventy Apostles, <unk> only Thaddeus, and not Levi.

It should also be noted that both the holy Apostle and the Evangelist Matthew are called Levi by some Evangelists.

As the star of the brightest church, the apostle Thaddeus, your miracles are always enlightened: save by faith your memory.