ON ST. AGABUS THE PROPHET, AT ANTIOCH IN SYRIA
In the first century of Christ.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Agabus the Prophet, at Antioch in Syria (St.)
By G. H.
[1] With most of the Latin Martyrologies we begin the thirteenth day of February with St. Agabus, concerning whom the following is read in the ancient Roman Martyrology published by Rosweydus: On the Ides of February, of Agabus the Prophet in the New Testament, at Antioch. St. Agabus is venerated by the Latins on February 13. Several manuscripts add further details under grace. Usuard, Bede, Bellinus, and most manuscripts report the matter thus: On the Ides of February, the Birthday of St. Agabus the Prophet at Antioch, of whom Blessed Luke writes in the Acts of the Apostles. Nearly the same things are read in the Ecclesiastical tables which the Roman Church now uses: At Antioch, the birthday of St. Agabus, etc. The author of a manuscript Florarium relates that he rests at Antioch. But Peter de Natalibus, book 3, chapter 118, and Canisius following him in the German Martyrology, write that Agabus was both born at Antioch and finally rested in peace there. Ado adds what is read concerning him in the Acts of the Apostles.
[2] The Greeks join St. Agabus with other disciples on March 8, by the Greeks on March 8: on which day the following is read in the Menologion which Henry Canisius published: Of Ss. Herodion, Agabus, Rufus, Asyncritus, Phlegon, and Hermes. In the Menaea the following is reported: Of the holy Apostles from among the Seventy: Herodion, Agabus, Rufus, Phlegon, Syncritus, and Hermes. Thus the name of Apostles was attributed to the first disciples of Christ and others contemporary with them, as we have often said: He is called an Apostle, among whom we have celebrated Titus the Apostle, Parmenus the Apostle, Timothy the Apostle, and Ananias the Apostle on January 4, 23, 24, and 25. That St. Agabus was one of the seventy disciples of Christ is also read in the Catalogue of Peter de Natalibus and in the German Martyrology, which was taken from the Synopsis of Dorotheus. Those whom the Greeks have joined as his companions, the Latins refer to various days, and indeed on the same March 8, Herodion, Asyncritus, and Phlegon. But Hermas on May 9, and Rufus on November 21: on which days we too shall treat of them. Concerning St. Agabus, this distich is added:
The soul of Agabus the Prophet-Apostle, The Savior of souls, the Lord, took up.
It is then said in the same Menaea that Agabus afterward set out for the region that had fallen to him by lot, and there preached the Gospel; and finally this conclusion is added about all of them: and he is believed to have died a Martyr: Therefore on one day these men, tormented by Jews and Pagans with various punishments, ceased to live in the Lord.
[3] St. Luke in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 11, from verse 20, narrates the growth of the faith, especially at Antioch, where the disciples were first called Christians; and then from verse 27 he has this: The Prophet foretold the famine that occurred in the year 42, In those days prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch; and one of them, named Agabus, rising up, signified through the Spirit that a great famine would come upon the whole world, which came to pass under Claudius. And the disciples, each according to his means, resolved to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea, which they did, sending it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. Thus St. Luke. Now Claudius became Emperor when Gaius Caligula was slain on the ninth day before the Kalends of February in the fourth year of his rule, the year of Christ 41; in whose second year, the year of Christ 42, in the consulship of the Emperor Claudius himself and Licinius Largus, the predicted famine raged. Then, says Dio Cassius in book 60 of his Roman Histories, "when a severe famine arose, he made provision not only for the abundance of food at that present time, but also for all future time." Suetonius also writes in his Life of Claudius, chapter 18: "Detained by a rather tight grain supply due to continual crop failures, he was once beset in the middle of the forum by a mob, and so pelted with insults and at the same time with fragments of bread, that he barely managed to escape into the palace by a back door." So much for the famine predicted by St. Agabus and its date.
[4] The same St. Luke in chapter 21 narrates that St. Paul, to whom he was a companion, sailed to Cos, Rhodes, Patara, Tyre, Ptolemais, and Caesarea, where, he says from verse 10, "while we stayed there for some days, a certain prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. When he had come to us, and the captivity of St. Paul he took Paul's belt and, binding his own feet and hands, said: 'Thus says the Holy Spirit: The man whose belt this is, the Jews in Jerusalem will bind thus, and will deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.'" When we heard this, both we and those of that place begged him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered and said: "What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." And when he could not be persuaded, we fell silent, saying: "The will of the Lord be done." After those days, having prepared ourselves, we went up to Jerusalem, where Paul was seized by the Jews and nearly killed; but the tribune rescued him, ordering him to be bound with two chains, and upon discovering the conspiracy of the Jews, sent him to Caesarea to Felix the Governor, as is related in chapter 23. But Felix, handing over the province to Festus, delivered Paul still bound to him, as is told in chapter 24. These events occurred in the year of Christ 55, the year 55, the third year of the Emperor Nero. Paul was brought to Rome the following year and kept under guard for two years.
[5] What other illustrious deeds St. Agabus performed does not appear to have been committed to writing. Etymology of the name. Cornelius a Lapide in his Commentary on chapter 11 of the Acts of the Apostles adduces various interpretations of the name of St. Agabus from the Hebrew language, which the reader will find there.