Apostle of the Seventy Sosthenes, Apostle of the Seventy, Bishop of Colophon

The Holy Apostle Sosthenes of the Seventy, Bishop of Colophon, lived in the first century and was one of the seventy disciples chosen and sent out by the Lord Jesus Christ to preach the Gospel (Luke 10:1-24). Before his conversion, he served as ruler of the Jewish synagogue in Corinth. When the Jews raised an uproar against the Apostle Paul before the tribunal of the proconsul Gallio, the crowd seized Sosthenes and beat him in front of the judgment seat (Acts 18:12-17). Despite this ordeal, Sosthenes came to believe in Christ through Paul's preaching and became one of his closest co-workers. In his First Epistle to the Corinthians, Paul names Sosthenes as "our brother" and co-sender of the letter (1 Corinthians 1:1), indicating his prominent standing in the early Christian community. Paul later consecrated Sosthenes bishop of Colophon in Asia Minor (Ionia), where he labored zealously for Christ. Church tradition numbers him among the Seventy Apostles. He is commemorated on 4/17 January with the Synaxis of the Seventy Apostles, and separately on 30 March/12 April and 8/21 December.