In the beginning, there were “The Twelve” – the original Holy Apostles, chosen by the Savior Jesus Christ as His closest assistants and most loyal allies in the brutal struggle for conversion of the world that lay ahead. The Apostles traveled throughout Palestine with Jesus, and they witnessed many of His miracles of healing. Some of them also were present for the bitter hours of Christ’s Passion and His ultimately triumphant death by crucifixion. Along with The Twelve, however, the Holy Redeemer in His great wisdom also selected Seventy Lesser Apostles and dispatched them all across Palestine and the Holy Land. Their mission: To preach the Holy Gospel, and to convert as many people as they could to the promise of Eternal Salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. As the Holy Scriptures make clear, The Seventy were not mere messengers or servants of the early Church, but authentic Disciples of Jesus, with each chosen by Him to play a role in the establishment of the Holy Gospel throughout the entire world. 
The Seventy included many martyrs – and also many heroic and longsuffering bishops – among their ranks. On the 4th of January, the Holy Orthodox Church commemorates this large community of saints by celebrating them as a holy assemblage of servants of God whose contributions have inspired Christians for nearly 2,000 years. This sacred commemoration, known as the Sobor (or Assemblage) of the lesser disciples, also shows the great importance of the role that The Seventy played in spreading the Gospel of Salvation everywhere.One of the most concise and affecting descriptions of the work of The Seventy can be found in the New Testament Gospel According to St. Luke. (Luke: 10: 1-16): TAKEN FROM After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go. Then He said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves. Carry neither money bag, knapsack, nor sandals; and greet no one along the road. But whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on it; if not, it will return to you. And remain in the same house, eating and drinking such things as they give, for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not go from house to house. Whatever city you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you. And heal the sick there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whatever city you enter, and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, ‘The very dust of your city which clings to us we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near you.’ But] I say to you that it will be more tolerable in that Day for Sodom than for that city. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades. He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me.” Although some of The Seventy faltered in their tasks – not out of betrayal but out of ordinary human weakness and fatigue – the majority remained faithful to the One who had sent them and completed their assignments. And indeed, many proved their devotion by giving up their lives as martyrs, rather than submitting to persecutors who sought to prevent the new Gospel of the Holy Redeemer from taking hold. As many of the Church Fathers have pointed out over the generations, The Seventy Disciples did the same work as did the Twelve Great Apostles. These later Apostles often spent their days alongside the Twelve, laboring at the thousand and one tasks that were required to spread the Church of God in the world of men. The Seventy endured immense sufferings, but their love of God and their faith in Jesus helped them to avoid discouragement and continue the struggle throughout their entire lives. The Seventy Disciples numbered the following among their ranks, according to the authoritative The Orthodox Study Bible: Achaicus, Agabus, Alphaeus, Amplias, Ananias, Apelles, Apollos, Aquila, Archippus, Aristarchus, Aristobulus, Artemas, Asyncritus, Barnabas, Caesar, Cephas, Carpus, Clement, Cleopas, Crescens, Crispus, Epaenetus, Epaphras, Epaphroditus, Erastus, Euodia, Fortunatus, Gaius, Hermas, Hermes, Herodion, James, Jason, Justus, Linus, Lucius, Luke the Evangelist, Mark the Evangelist (called John), Mark, Narcissus, Nicanor, Olympas, Onesimus, Onesiphorus, Parmenas, Patrobus, Philemon, Philip, Philologus, Phlegon, Prochorus, Pudens, Quadratus, Quartus, Rufus, Silas, Silvanus, Simeon, Sosipater, Sosthenes, Stachys, Stephen, Tertius, Thaddaeus, Timon, Timothy, Titus, Trophimus, Tychicus, Urban, Zenas. Apolytikion in the Third Tone O Holy Apostles of the Seventy, intercede with the merciful God that He grant unto our souls forgiveness of offences. Kontakion in the Second Tone With hymns let us praise the chorus of the Seventy disciples of Christ, ye faithful; and in godliness, let us keep a feast, for we learned through them to worship the Trinity, Who is indivisibly one; for they are the lamps of our most godly Faith.
