OUR PATRON SAINTS

The Holy Apostles

 

Our parish is named for the Twelve Apostles, the men Christ called to follow Him during His earthly ministry and sent into the world to proclaim the Gospel after His Resurrection. We sing their apolytikion at every Sunday Divine Liturgy, and we keep their feast, the Synaxis of the Twelve Holy Apostles, each June 30.

 

Most Orthodox parishes are named for a single saint. Holy Apostles is named for twelve.

 

When a parish receives a single saint as its patron, the relationship is direct: one intercessor, one icon at the front of the church. The patron's life becomes a kind of model for the parish's life. When the Holy Spirit leads a parish to a group of Saints, the inheritance is different. What we receive from the Twelve is not the single example of any one life, but the shape of the group itself.

 

The Twelve Holy Apostles were not a homogeneous company. They included fishermen, a reviled tax collector, a former Zealot. Many were of small means and uncertain reputation. None of them were trained as scholars or priests. Christ chose them anyway, and their first response was to leave what they were doing and follow Him. What they became, by the work of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and through the rest of their lives, was the foundation of the Church.

The Holy Apostles debated and sometimes even argued. They misunderstood Christ at moments. Peter denied Him, Thomas doubted Him, Judas betrayed Him, and Matthias was chosen to fill that vacated place. What held these men together was not sameness, not the unity of their temperament nor the similarity of their views. What they shared was a calling and a Lord, and that was enough to make them one Body. Out of that, the Church grew.

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This is the inheritance our parish receives. As a community, we represent many different  backgrounds, languages, histories and ethnicities. We embrace that our gifts differ. The Twelve remind us that this has always been the shape of the Church. We are held together not by sameness but by Christ.