The Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) today celebrates and commemorates the holy apostles Jason and Sosipater. The Holy Apostles Jason and Sosipater and the virgin Kerkyra are Christian saints.
The first two belong to the Seventy Apostles, and the virgin Kerkyra was the daughter of a king from the island of Corfu. Jason and Sosipater are mentioned by the Apostle Paul (Rom. 16, 21) who calls them his relatives.
Jason was a native of Tarsus, like the Apostle Paul himself, and Sosipater from Achaia. The former was appointed by Paul as Bishop of Tarsus and the latter as Bishop of Iconium.
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Traveling and preaching the Gospel, these two apostles arrived on the island of Corfu, where they managed to build a church 1 in the name of Saint Stephen the Protomartyr and win over some unbelievers to the church. According to Christian tradition, the king of that island threw them into prison, where 7 robbers were imprisoned: Saturninus, Iakischol, Faustian, Januarius, Marsalius, Ephrasius, and Mammius.
These seven were converted to Christianity by the apostles. Hearing of this, the king, according to tradition, ordered that these seven be put to death in hot tar. When the king then tormented the apostles, his daughter, the virgin Kerkyra, watched their torments from the window, and learning why they were being tormented, she herself declared herself a Christian and distributed all her jewelry to the poor.
The king was enraged at his daughter and imprisoned her in a special dungeon, and failing to turn her away from Christ by this means, he ordered the dungeon to be set on fire. Christian tradition states that the dungeon burned down, but Kerkyra remained alive. Seeing this miracle, many people were baptized.
The enraged king then ordered his daughter to be tied to a tree and killed with arrows. Those who believed in Christ fled from the king to a nearby island and hid.
The king set out by ship to capture them, but the ship sank into the sea and he perished. The new king converted to Christianity, was baptized, and received the name Sebastian.
Jason and Sosipater freely preached the Gospel and established the Church in Corfu until a ripe old age. They died in Corfu. The Serbian Orthodox Church celebrates them on April 28th according to the church calendar, and on May 11th according to the Gregorian calendar.
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Source: Mondo, Foto: SPC