In recent years there has been a rash of new religions erupt­ing on the community skin, a kind of social disease to which the seasoned Christian is immune, but which afflicts the well-intentioned but more impressionable young. The merchants of these new reli­gions, which can be better described as cults, achieve a measure of ephemeral success for which’ they are indebted not so much to the validity of their ideology as to the modern tools with which some people could be persuaded to become stockholders of the Brooklyn Bridge. The power of the public relations counsel, sometimes known as press agent, is augmented by the far-reaching effects of the newspapers, radio, and the awesome television set, with which the Pied Piper of Hamlin could have recruited youngsters from Pole to Pole.

Christianity has lasted nearly two thousand years, during which numberless religions have come and gone, time enough to prove the truth of the word of Jesus Christ and the authen­ticity of Orthodox worship. But even the Son of God needed help to get His message to the people, and for this He selected a group of public relations men known as the Disciples, who in turn enlisted the aid of Apostles, a sextet of whom are sing­led out annually in a single honor in their memory. They are the Saints Stachys, Amplias, Urbanus, Apelles, Narcissus, and Aristobulus. These six holy men, cited in the Bible in the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans (Ch. 16, vs 8 to 16), went out into the spiritually shadowed world of the Apostolic Era, a time in which the degree of literacy was such that had there been newspapers it would have availed them little, and when their only means of communication was the painstaking slow word of mouth. Unaided by the miracle of the modern media, and armed only with the miracles of the Lord, they trudged from person to person, group to group in an apostle tour de force that has echoed down the centuries and will reverberate for endless centuries to come.

St. Stachys was among the first seventy Apostles of Christ. His total dedication to the Savior was evinced in his ceaseless efforts to gain a foothold for the New Faith. He was ordained the first Bishop of Byzantium, then an important culture center, eventually to become the city of Constantinople and spiritual center of the Byzantine Empire under the first Chris­tian Emperor, Constantine the Great. The man who presided at his ordination was no less than the Disciple of Christ, St. Andrew.

St. Apelles was an intellectual in an eminent degree and was highly respected by the mightySt. Paul. His oratory was such that he is credited with having brought converts into the fold in numbers that warmed the hearts of the disciples and the small army of pious men whose sole aim in life was the crea­tion of an everlasting Christian Church.

Another man ordained bishop by st. Andrew was St. Amplias, the first Bishop of the ancient city of Odyssopolis, where he was to take a stand against paganism at the cost of his life. Martyred by his enemies, he is remembered as a minister of the Lord in the highest tradition.

St. Ourbanos was ordained by St. Andrew as the Bishop of all Macedonia, a region already rich in tradition and an area recognized throughout the civilized world for its literary and artistic contributions. St. Urbanus was more than equal to the task of converting Macedonians, who for centuries had a sophistication of ideas on faith that were not easily dislodged. Urbanus set a fine example in Macedonia but did not escape the avenging pagans. He was martyred for the cause of Christ.

The Narcissus of mythology saw his image in a pool and fell in love with himself, but there was a real Narcissus who became an Apostle and loved the Lord above all else. St. Narcissus is mentioned by Apostle Paul as the head of a great “Christian house­hold.” He, too, was ordained by St. Andrew as Bishop of Athens, then, as now, the most fabulous city in the world. But even his Athenian followers could not save him from the pagans who took his life.

St. Aristobulus was made Bishop of Brittany by St. Andrew. In this Christian outpost he served Christ for 20 years before finally being martyred.

Source: George Poulos, Orthodox saints, v. II, Brookline: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 1978.