Apostle 1st century

Apostle Carpus of the Seventy

Also known as Carpus of Beroea · Karpos

One of the Seventy, a fellow-laborer of the Apostle Paul who mentions him in his second letter to Timothy; he served as bishop of Verria in Macedonia and preached the Gospel widely.

Feast Day
May 26
Draft
Draft — pending review. Not yet verified for publication.
Commemorated as

The Holy Apostle Carpus of the Seventy

Come to them for
Missionary Work

Life

Carpus was one of the Seventy Apostles whom Christ chose and sent forth to preach (Luke 10:1), and a fellow-laborer of the Apostle Paul. He is best known from a single line of the New Testament: in his second letter to Timothy, Paul asks that the cloak he left at Troas with Carpus be brought to him (2 Timothy 4:13), a passing reference that places Carpus among Paul's trusted associates and the keepers of his belongings.

By tradition Carpus served as bishop of Beroea (also rendered Berroia or Verria) in Macedonia, where he preached the Gospel. He is counted among the first generation of the Church's hierarchs, an apostolic-age bishop of the 1st century.

Carpus is commemorated on May 26, where the synaxarion joins his memory with that of the Apostle Alphaeus, also of the Seventy. He is additionally remembered on January 4 in the collective commemoration of the Synaxis of the Seventy Apostles.

Contributions & Legacy

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The Mention by the Apostle Paul

The historical anchor of Carpus's memory is Paul's instruction in 2 Timothy 4:13 that Timothy bring "the cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus." That Paul left a personal item in Carpus's keeping at Troas is taken by the tradition as evidence of a close and trusting relationship between the two, and it is the detail by which Carpus is most often identified.

Commemorated with Read Hide
Notes

Of the Seventy; not of the Twelve.

Sources: OCA Synaxarion (oca.org), Lives of the Saints