Stachys the Apostle

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Stachys the Apostle" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (October 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Saint Stachys the Apostle
Bishop of Byzantium
Stachys, Amplias, Urban (Menologion of Basil II)
Installed	38
Term ended	54
Predecessor	Andrew the Apostle
Successor	Onesimus
Orders
Ordination	by Andrew the Apostle[1]
Personal details
Died	54
Denomination	Early Church
Sainthood
Feast day	31 October
Venerated in	Eastern Orthodox Church
Title as Saint	Apostle of the Seventy, Bishop of Byzantium

Stachys the Apostle (Greek: Στάχυς, "ear-spike"; died 54) was the second bishop of Byzantium, from AD 38 to AD 54 according to tradition.

Stachys is mentioned just one time in the New Testament as a person loved by Apostle Paul (Rom. 16:9).^[2] Other than that, all information regarding him comes from tradition. He seemed to be closely connected to Andrew and Paul. Eusebius quotes Origen as saying that Andrew had preached in Asia Minor and in Scythia, along the Black Sea as far as the Volga and Kiev, hence he became a patron saint of Romania and Russia. According to tradition, Saint Andrew founded the See of Byzantium in 38, installing Stachys as bishop,^[3] a position he held for sixteen years.^[4]

This See would later develop into the Patriarchate of Constantinople, having Apostle Andrew as its Patron Saint. Stachys founded a church at Argyropolis, and many people gathered there to hear him preach.^[5]

It is not clear if Stachys was the same person whom Paul calls "dear" in the Epistle to the Romans (Rom. 16:9), but he is always associated in traditions with five other apostles (Ampliatus, Urban, Apelles, Aristobulus and Narcissus) that are the very same names mentioned together with him by Paul in Romans 16:8–11.

His feast day is on 31 October.^[3]