Apostle
Apostle Thaddaeus Of Edessa
†ок. 44
Apostle Thaddaeus of Edessa of the Seventy — a native of Syrian Edessa, baptized by St. John the Baptist; after Christ's Ascension he preached in Syria and Mesopotamia, converting Prince Abgar of Edessa and his subjects to Christ; associated with the tradition of the Icon of Christ Not Made by Hands.
Apostle Thaddaeus of the Seventy, a native of the Syrian city of Edessa, was baptized by St. John the Baptist and became one of Christ's disciples. After the Lord's Ascension, he preached in Syria and Mesopotamia. According to tradition, it was he who brought Christ's letter and the Icon Not Made by Hands to Abgar, ruler of Edessa, after which the leprosy-stricken Abgar was healed and believed in Christ along with many of the city's inhabitants. Thaddaeus refused the rich gifts offered to him and continued his apostolic preaching, according to one version of the tradition founding a Church in Beirut, where he died peacefully around 44 AD (other sources say he was martyred in Armenia around 50 AD). His main commemoration is kept on June 19/July 2; a commemoration on August 21 is also mentioned in some sources, as well as the general commemoration on January 4/17 in the Synaxis of the Seventy Apostles.