Apelles, Lucius and Clement of the Seventy

The Holy Apostles of the Seventy Apelles, Lucius and Clement

Apostle of the Seventy · Apostle · Bishop

Commemorated 4 January — Synaxis of the Seventy Apostles, 22 April — Joint commemoration (OCA and Slavic calendars), 10 September — Joint memory of the three apostles

Apelles, Lucius and Clement (1st century) are three of the Seventy Apostles, commemorated together on September 10. All three are greeted by name in the letters of Paul: Apelles, "approved in Christ" (Romans 16:10), became bishop of Heraclea; Lucius (Romans 16:21) — whom the Slavic tradition identifies with the Evangelist Luke, while the Greek synaxaria keep him distinct — became bishop of Laodicea in Syria; and Clement, whose name Paul says is "in the book of life" (Philippians 4:3), became bishop of Sardis. Each finished his course as a preacher of the Gospel; no acts of martyrdom are transmitted. They share the day's synaxis listing with no individual propers, and are commemorated again with all the Seventy on January 4.

The three apostles joined on September 10 are known chiefly from the greetings of the Apostle Paul and from the Byzantine lists of the Seventy ascribed to Hippolytus and to Dorotheus of Tyre, which assign each a see; no passions or extended Lives survive, and the synaxarion gives them a single joint notice.

Apelles is the disciple whom Paul salutes in Romans 16:10: "Greet Apelles, approved in Christ" (δόκιμον ἐν Χριστῷ — "tested," "proved"). The lists of the Seventy make him bishop of Heraclea (in Thrace; one strand of the tradition names Smyrna as the place where he ended his labours). He is remembered as a tireless strengthener of the churches, a "good soldier of Christ" to his last breath.

Lucius — the Greek synaxarion for the day writes "Loukas," and the name wavers between Λούκιος and Λουκᾶς in the tradition — is identified with the Lucius of Romans 16:21, whom Paul names among his kinsmen and fellow workers. He became bishop of Laodicea in Syria and completed his course there shepherding his flock. On his identity see Disputed questions below.

Clement is the fellow labourer of Philippians 4:3, of whom Paul writes that his name, with those of his other fellow workers, is "in the book of life." The tradition makes him a bishop in Asia Minor — Sardis in the Greek lists (some sources write Sardica) — where he reposed after many trials endured for the sake of his flock.

Feast and commemoration

September 10 (church date; Old Calendar civil September 23), a joint memory within the afterfeast of the Nativity of the Theotokos; the Greek Menaion commemorates the three in the synaxarion notice only, with no proper hymns. The OCA and Slavic calendars commemorate the same three together again on April 22, and all three are included in the Synaxis of the Seventy Apostles on January 4. Individual members of the Seventy named in the September 10 grouping do not otherwise appear separately in the universal calendar (the Apelles of October 31 being, by the reckoning followed here, a different apostle).

Hymns

Troparion — Tone 3

Holy Apostles Apelles, Lucius and Clement, intercede with the merciful God, that he grant to our souls the forgiveness of offences.

Original translation from the Greek

Iconography

The three would be painted as apostle-bishops — in chiton and himation with scrolls, or vested in phelonion and omophorion with Gospel books — either as a row of three or within synaxis icons of the Seventy. No pre-modern icon depicting this September grouping as such has been identified on the open repositories; the Menologion of Basil II has no miniature for them.

Disputed questions

Lucius or Luke? The Slavic tradition, following Demetrius of Rostov, identifies this apostle with the Evangelist Luke (whose principal feast is October 18); the Greek sources state expressly that he is another Luke — the Lucius of Romans 16:21, bishop of Laodicea. The calendars' joint listing survives the disagreement, since the commemoration stands either way; this collection follows the Greek distinction while recording the Slavic identification. He is likewise not to be confused with Lucius of Cyrene (Acts 13:1), a separate apostle of the Seventy with his own place in the tradition, nor with the martyr Lucius the Soldier of August 14, of whom the Greek synaxarion records only that he was martyred by fire.
Apelles and Apollos. The manuscript lists of the Seventy confuse and sometimes merge Apelles with Apollos (the Alexandrian of Acts 18:24), and a second Apelles, "of Smyrna," appears in the lists and again in the calendar on October 31 among another company of the Seventy. Some witnesses (the Russian calendar tradition among them) title the September 10 apostle "Apollos (Apelles)." The most common resolution — followed here — keeps three figures apart: Apelles of Heraclea (September 10), Apelles/Apollos of Smyrna (October 31), and Apollos of Alexandria (December 8 with the Seventy, March 30 in some calendars); but the boundary between them is a genuine tangle of the tradition, not a settled fact.
Clement and Clement of Rome. Eusebius (Church History III.15) identified the Clement of Philippians 4:3 with Clement, bishop of Rome — an identification the synaxarion tradition of this day does not follow, keeping the bishop of Sardis distinct from the hieromartyr Clement of Rome (November 25). Confusion between the two is ancient and should be guarded against.