Sosipater of Iconium

Description

Sosipater (Greek: Σωσίπατρος) is a person mentioned in the New Testament, in Romans 16:21. He is probably the same person as Sopater mentioned in Acts 20:4.

In church tradition, he is known as Sosipater of Iconium, and is numbered among the Seventy Apostles. St. Sosipater’s feast days are on April 28 (Slavic tradition), or 29 (Greek tradition) with St. Jason; November 10 with saints Erastus, Olympas, Herodian, Quartus and Tertius; and January 4 with the Seventy. According to Latin tradition, the disciple of St Paul the Apostle died on the 25th of June in Beroea.

Legend
Sosipater was born in Achaea. According to legend, he was Bishop in Iconium (modern-day Konya, Turkey)[1] (prior to the Apostle Tertius) by his relative the Apostle Paul. With the Apostle Jason he traveled to the island of Corfu where they built a church in honor of the Apostle Stephen the Protomartyr and converted many pagans to the Christian faith. Seeing this, the governor of Corfu threw them into prison where they converted seven other prisoners to the Christian faith: Saturninus, Jakischolus, Faustianus, Januarius, Marsalius, Euphrasius and Mammius, known as the Seven Robbers. The governor had those seven put to death by boiling pitch for their faith.

The governor’s daughter, the virgin Cercyra [uk], having watched these holy apostles being tortured and turned to the Christian faith, distributed all her jewels to the poor. The governor became angry and put her in prison, yet she would not deny Christ. So he had the prison burned, but she remained unharmed. Many people were baptized upon seeing this miracle. He then had her killed with arrows while tied to a tree.