Hermas of Dalmatia

Holy Apostle Hermas (Hermes, Hermin), one of the Seventy Apostles, was, according to tradition, a bishop in Dalmatia. He is mentioned in the Epistle to the Romans of the Apostle Paul. His name appears in the sources in several forms and with several days of commemoration. Tradition attributes to him missionary work in Dalmatia, but no precise data survive apart from general expressions in the apostle's service. The Greek Synaxarion says that, after many labours and sorrows, he passed away in peace.

The Apostle Paul writes to the Romans: Salute Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes and the brethren who are with them. The fact that Hermas is named alongside Hermes shows that they are two different persons; therefore Hermes of Dalmatia is usually taken as the one called Hermes in the Epistle, and he is said to have succeeded Titus as bishop of Dalmatia. There is another apostle of the Seventy named Hermas, bishop in the Thracian city of Philippopolis.

The days of commemoration differ in our sources: according to the English source, 8 April with his fellow martyrs, and 4 January among the Seventy; according to the Serbian source, 18 (21) April together with the apostles Herodion, Agabus, Rufus, Phlegon and Asyncritus, 31 May (13 June) and 4 (17) January, on the day of the Synaxis of the Seventy Apostles. The record also gives 8 April, 31 May and 4 January.

In the hymns of the service the apostles Herodion, Agabus, Rufus, Asyncritus, Phlegon and Hermes are praised as a sixfold choir who entreat the Trinity unceasingly for our souls. Under the name of a Hermias, from the second and third centuries, a small writing in Greek survives, the Mockery of the Pagan Philosophers; there are no certain data about its author, and some attribute it to the apostle, without any basis.