Quadratus of Athens

The holy Apostle Quadratus is counted by tradition among the Seventy disciples of the Lord. He was bishop of Athens and one of the first Christian apologists, who defended the faith in writing before Emperor Hadrian at the beginning of the second century.

According to tradition he was a disciple of the apostles. Eusebius of Caesarea names him among the men of the first Christian generations who had the gift of prophecy. He became bishop of Athens after the martyrdom of Saint Publius, at a time when the Church there had been sorely tried, and he gathered the scattered flock once more.

When Emperor Hadrian came to Athens, around 124 and 125, Quadratus presented to him an apology, that is, a writing in defence of the Christians. A single fragment of it survives, in Eusebius. In it Quadratus shows that the Saviour's miracles were real and could be verified by anyone: those He healed and raised were not seen for a moment only, but lived on for a long time afterwards, and some of them had survived even into the author's own day.

Tradition links this apology with the emperor's order that no Christian should be condemned without proven guilt. Nothing certain is known of the end of his life.

He is commemorated on 21 September and remembered with the other apostles of the Seventy on 4 January.