Saint Andronicus of Pannonia

Saint Andronicus of Pannonia

50–100 · Early Church

Feast day: May 17

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Biography

Andronicus of Pannonia (Greek: Ἀνδρόνικος) was a 1st-century Christian mentioned by the Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Romans (chapter 16): /* start https://en.wikipedia.org/ */ .mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 32px}.mw-parser-output .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;margin-top:0}@media(min-width:500px){.mw-parser-output .templatequotecite{padding-left:1.6em}} /* end https://en.wikipedia.org/ */ According to that verse, Andronicus was a kinsman of Paul and a fellow prisoner at some time, particularly well known among the apostles, and had become a follower of Jesus Christ before Paul's Damascus road conversion. It is generally assumed that Junia was his wife, but they could have been brother and sister, or father and daughter, or no close relation to each other, but to Paul as kinsmen. Translations of the New Testament vary with their renditions of the Greek words translated as "of note" and "apostles." One theory is that Andronicus and Junia were not apostles themselves, but enjoyed a high reputation among the apostles. However, classicist Evelyn Stagg and New Testament scholar Frank Stagg write that Paul makes a special point of explicitly stating how well known the couple is to him. His references to the couple's imprisonment with him and to the time of their conversion relative to his own would give him no interest in deferring to the opinion of others as a source of credentials. Hence, he considers himself competent to endorse the couple as "apostles" on the basis of his own involvement with them. The Staggs conclude that both the context and the content of this verse require that it be read naturally as Paul's commendation of Andronicus and Junia as being remarkable Christian workers and "apostles" alongside Silas, Timothy, and others given that title in the early Church.

Patronages

No patronages on file. (See the documentation/patronage-data-plan.md for the gap-fill plan.)

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