Apphia

Saint Apphia (Appia) of Colossae was, according to tradition, a Christian woman, the wife or sister of Philemon, who was martyred in the persecution of Nero, between 62 and 68. She is venerated in the Orthodox Church as one of those equal to the apostles and in the Catholic Church. Her feast is on 22 November (Orthodox and Catholic calendar) and on 19 February by the old calendar (3 or 4 March by the new). The birth date 100 on the record has no meaning, since she lived in the first century.

Apphia is mentioned in the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to Philemon, beside Philemon (Philemon 1:2); the epistle is addressed to Philemon our beloved and fellow labourer, to the sister Apphia and Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house. It is not clear whether she was his wife or his sister. Saint John Chrysostom regards her as Philemon's wife, and this opinion entered the tradition of the Church. Paul asks Philemon to take back Onesimus, who had perhaps previously been his slave.

According to the life written by Saint Demetrius of Rostov, at the end of the seventeenth century, Apphia lived with her husband at Colossae, in Asia Minor, where, making their house a church, she served the Lord zealously day and night, labouring in prayer and fasting; she received with joy and sheltered those who toiled proclaiming the teaching of Christ, fed the poor, the needy and strangers, so that her house was not only a church, but also a guesthouse, a hospital and a shelter for all who had nowhere to rest.

She received martyrdom together with her husband in the time of the emperor Nero (54 to 68). At the festival of the Greek goddess Artemis, a crowd of townspeople seized in the church Philemon and Apphia, as well as the head of the local Christian community, Archippus. For refusing to take part in the pagan celebrations, Archippus was cut with knives and died on the spot. The governor Artocles condemned Philemon and Apphia to lapidation, that is, to be put to death with stones. Archippus and Philemon are canonized as holy apostles, and Apphia is numbered among those equal to the apostles. The Menaia of 22 November speak of Philemon as a holy apostle, martyred at Colossae together with Apphia, Archippus and Onesimus, in the first general persecution in the reign of Nero; in the list of the Seventy Apostles attributed to Dorotheus of Tyre, Philemon is called bishop of Gaza.