Herodion of Patras

The Holy Apostle Herodion, also called Herodian or Rodion, is one of the seventy apostles, bishop of the city of Patras in Greece, and a martyr. The Apostle Paul mentions him in the Epistle to the Romans: Greet Herodion, my kinsman (16:11).

Some consider him a relative of Paul by blood, but the Greek word used can also mean, broadly, a fellow Jew, as Paul uses it in Romans 9:3. Saint Demetrius of Rostov, in his Menaion, says that Herodion came from Tarsus in Cilicia, that he was a companion and helper of the apostles Peter and Paul and that they made him bishop. Greek sources call him bishop of Patras; according to some synaxaria he was the first bishop after the Apostle Andrew, according to others the second after Stratocles; a third opinion holds him bishop of Patara in Lycia. As bishop he preached the Gospel with zeal among the Greeks, and many of the pagans believed in Christ. Out of envy, the Jews agreed with the idol worshippers, seized him and tormented him: some beat him, others threw stones, others struck him on the head with sticks, and one stabbed him with a knife. They left him for dead, but Herodion remained alive by God's grace and went on serving the apostles. In Rome he worked beside Peter and, according to tradition, was beheaded with Olympas and other Christians on the same day that Peter was crucified, in the time of Nero.

The Orthodox Church commemorates him on 4 January, in the Synaxis of the Seventy Apostles, on 8 April, with Agabus, Rufus, Asyncritus, Phlegon and Hermes, and on 10 November, with Olympas, Sosipater, Tertius, Erastus and Quartus. The Catholic Church commemorates him on 8 April.