ON ST. EPAPHRAS,
BISHOP OF COLOSSAE AND MARTYR.
CommentaryEpaphras, Bishop of Colossae and Martyr (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.
The first memory of this Saint in the sacred Fasti is owed to Ado, who, in gathering the festivals of the Apostles, gave him a place among them on this day in these words: The birthday of blessed Epaphras, who, ordained bishop by blessed Paul at Colossae, This holy bishop of Colossae, renowned for his virtues, received the palm of martyrdom for the sheep entrusted to him in a manly contest; buried in that same city. From this source Usuard drew his own, and so did all the others who made mention of him, together with Baronius in the Roman Martyrology, as we observed in its place. The praised Baronius added, from the epistle to be cited below, that St. Paul the Apostle calls him a fellow-captive, together with this further clause: whose body is laid up at Rome in the basilica of St. Mary Major, which he testifies that he received from certain ancient monuments of that same church. Likewise to be noted are the things which Peter de Natalibus adds besides in his Catalogue: Epaphras, a disciple, one of the seventy-two, as Jerome says; and then: For he, at Paul's bidding, preached the word of the Lord to the Colossians. Neither of these did the Bishop of Equilio prove, nor do we know where he himself read in St. Jerome that St. Epaphras was one of the seventy-two disciples, or that he undertook the evangelical ministry at Colossae by St. Paul's command, of which no trace whatever, so far as I know, exists.
[2] The things which are beyond doubt concerning St. Epaphras cannot be received more surely than from the very words of the Apostle, writing thus to Philemon: he is wondrously praised by the Apostle, Epaphras, my fellow-prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you. And again in the epistle to the Colossians, chapter 1, praising their faith, he speaks thus of their first preacher: We give thanks to God, and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you: hearing your faith in Christ Jesus, and the love which you have toward all the saints, for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, which you have heard of in the word of the truth of the Gospel: which is come unto you, as also it is in the whole world, and bringeth forth fruit, and groweth, even as in you, since the day you heard, and knew the grace of God in truth, as you learned it from Epaphras, our most beloved fellow-servant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ Jesus, who also declared to us your love in the spirit. And again in chapter 4 of the same epistle: Epaphras greets you, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, always solicitous for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and full in all the will of God. For I bear him testimony, that he has much labor for those who are at Laodicea and who are at Hierapolis.
[3] that he preached in various places. From these things it clearly appears that St. Epaphras was a captive at Rome with the Apostle, when the latter sent the epistle to Philemon to Colossae in the year of Christ 61. Likewise that he was still at Rome, when in the following year 62 he wrote to those same Colossians. Again it is plainly enough evident that Epaphras was the first who preached the word of the Lord to the Colossians, as you learned it from Epaphras; but whether he was sent by the Apostle Paul himself, or by another, or whether he brought the Gospel to his own people of his own accord, is uncertain. Why not suppose that, having been instructed at Antioch or elsewhere, or, if you will, being one of the seventy disciples, as he was himself a Colossian by birth, who is one of you, he returned to his own countrymen and there made the first sowing of the evangelical preaching, being taken captive there perhaps and on account of that same preaching led to Rome, where, finding the Apostle, he attached himself to him, a fellow-captive in Christ Jesus. This at last is clear, that he announced the faith not only at Colossae, but also at Laodicea, the metropolis of Phrygia, and even at Hierapolis, the Apostle bearing witness that he has much labor for you, and for those who are at Laodicea and Hierapolis.
[4] What St. Jerome heard of him. It will be helpful here to hear Jerome on the epistle to Philemon, in the latest edition, volume 4, page 454: Who Epaphras, Paul's fellow-captive, may be, we have received such a story. They say that the parents of the Apostle Paul were from the region of Gischala in Judea; and that they, when the whole province was laid waste by the Roman hand, and the Jews were scattered throughout the world, were carried over to the city of Tarsus in Cilicia: and that the boy Paul followed his parents' condition. And thus that saying can stand which he himself testifies concerning himself: They are Hebrews, and so am I… and the rest of the things which indicate him rather a Jew than a man of Tarsus. But if this is so, we can also suspect that Epaphras was captured at that same time in which Paul was captured, and, settled with his parents in Colossae, a city of Asia, afterward received the word of Christ. How much weight these things carry with St. Jerome need not be inquired at length; he also brings forward other things, but not even these clear or certain enough; so that it must needs be confessed that the things sought out concerning St. Epaphras from any source other than the recited words of Paul are very doubtful.
[5] Many other uncertain things are handed down. If it is not altogether certain, it is at least most probable, that he was ordained bishop for the Colossians, since the Apostle calls him a faithful minister for the Colossians; and again that after the Roman captivity he returned to his own people, where, renowned for his virtues, he received the palm of martyrdom for the sheep entrusted to him in a manly contest, although we are plainly ignorant whence Ado received his eulogy. I would not so readily admit the things narrated in the Acts of St. Auxibius on the 19th of February, chapter 2, number 8, page 126. Baronius cites Ambrose in the Annals at the year 60, number 11, as one who also made Archippus a bishop. For the rest, neither of the Saint's other deeds, nor of the time when he returned to Asia, nor of the years in which he survived, nor of the manner of his martyrdom, have we received anything besides handed down, so that here we must plainly halt. Nor can any help be received from the Greeks, inasmuch as they made no mention of St. Epaphras either on this day or on any other, at least so far as I know. As for the fact that I somewhere find something Coptic cited for the 8th of March, that is not found in Ludolf, nor is it of such moment that I think it must be sought out from elsewhere.
[6] His relics translated to Rome. Nothing further was at hand by which I might inquire into the sacred relics of St. Epaphras, had not Piazza's Hemerologium warned me, where under this day it is noted that his feast is solemnly celebrated in the basilica of St. Mary Major, in which his body rests, brought thither, as is believed, by Greek monks fleeing the savage persecution of the impious iconoclast Leo the Isaurian. He also says that some part of the relics exists in the basilica of St. Paul outside the walls of the City. Paulus de Angelis, in his description of the praised basilica of St. Mary Major, page 111, more distinctly expresses that there is preserved there, among very many other sacred treasures, the shin-bone of St. Epaphras the martyr, who was one of the seventy disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ. Whether the remains of this same Saint are also exposed to veneration elsewhere, I leave to others to investigate, for it is not now to my liking to run through all the catalogues of sanctuaries, a task of no great worth.