Justus Barsabbas

Saint Justus the Apostle, also called Joseph Barsabbas, was one of the Lord's disciples, numbered by tradition among the Seventy Apostles. The Acts of the Apostles names him as one of the two men put forward to take the place of Judas Iscariot among the Twelve. The Church remembers him on 30 October and on 4 January, at the Synaxis of the Seventy Apostles.

Acts says that Joseph, called Barsabbas and surnamed Justus, "the Righteous", had been with the disciples from the baptism of John until the Ascension. After the apostles prayed, they cast lots between him and Matthias, and the lot fell on Matthias, who was numbered with the eleven. The biblical text says nothing more of Justus. The name Justus was given him, it is thought, for the uprightness of his life. Tradition counts him among the Seventy whom the Lord sent out two by two before His face. Some have taken him for a son of Joseph the Betrothed, others for a son of Alphaeus and brother of James the Less, but there is no firm certainty about this. He is not to be confused with Judas Barsabbas, who is also mentioned in Acts. The Apostle Paul names a Jesus called Justus in the Epistle to the Colossians (4:11) among those who were a comfort to him in labour for the Kingdom of God.

According to tradition he became bishop of Eleutheropolis in Palestine, and there ended his life as a martyr. The historian Eusebius of Caesarea relates, on the authority of Papias, that he drank poison and by the grace of the Lord suffered no harm. Papias had heard the story at Hierapolis from the daughters of Philip the Evangelist.