Apostle of the Seventy Herodion of Patras

The Apostle of the Seventy Herodion, a kinsman of the Apostle Paul (tradition says a native of Tarsus in Cilicia), accompanied the Apostles Peter and Paul in their labors of preaching the Gospel. According to church tradition, they appointed him bishop of the city of Patras in the region of Achaia (Greece), where he preached zealously and converted many pagans and Jews to Christ. Enemies envious of his success seized him and subjected him to brutal torment — beating him with sticks, stoning him, inflicting knife wounds — leaving him for dead, but he survived. He later traveled to Rome, continuing to preach alongside the Apostle Peter, and suffered martyrdom in Rome under Emperor Nero — tradition holds he was beheaded together with the Apostle Olympas in the same wave of persecution that claimed the lives of the Apostles Peter and Paul (c. 67).