Agabus

Saint Agabus the Apostle, one of the Seventy, was a Christian prophet of Jerusalem, mentioned twice in the Acts of the Apostles. He foretold the great famine in the time of the emperor Claudius and the arrest of the holy Apostle Paul at Jerusalem. The Church commemorates him on 8 April and, in the synaxis of the Seventy, on 4 January.

Name and tradition

The name Agabus (in Greek Hagabos) comes, it seems, from the Aramaic hagab, "locust" or "grasshopper." His birthplace and family are unknown. Tradition says that he lived at Jerusalem, that he was among the seventy disciples sent out by the Lord to preach (Luke 10:1), and that on Pentecost he was in the upper room with the apostles.

The prophecies

The Acts of the Apostles (11:27-30) says that while Barnabas and Saul were teaching at Antioch, some prophets came down there from Jerusalem. One of them, Agabus, stood up and showed by the Spirit that a great famine would come over all the world, which happened in the days of Claudius. The disciples at Antioch then decided to send help to the brothers in Judea by Barnabas and Saul.

Agabus appears a second time when Paul reaches Caesarea, at the house of the deacon Philip. Agabus came down from Judea, took Paul's belt, bound his own feet and hands with it and said: "Thus says the Holy Spirit: This is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles" (Acts 21:10-11). The act resembles the symbolic acts of the prophets of the Old Testament. Those present begged Paul not to go up to Jerusalem, but he answered that he was ready not only to be bound but even to die for the name of the Lord Jesus. The prophecy was fulfilled.

His end

The tradition of the Church says that Agabus preached in many lands and suffered a martyr's death. By some accounts the Jews seized him at Jerusalem, beat him, dragged him out of the city with a rope around his neck and stoned him. By others he died at Antioch. No sure details have been preserved.

Veneration

The Church remembers him on 8 April, with the apostles Herodion, Asyncritus, Phlegon, Rufus and Hermes, and on 4 January in the synaxis of the Seventy. Agabus is honoured as a prophet of the New Testament who warned the Church beforehand of coming trials.