Description
St. Silas was one of the Seventy Holy Apostles appointed by Christ to spread His Gospel. When the first Council of the Apostles was convened at Jerusalem by St. James in a.d. 51 to determine whether the newly converting Gentiles needed to follow the full Judaic Law, St. Silas and St. Jude accompanied St. Paul and St. Barnabas back to Antioch to explain their unanimous decision. It was decided that the new Gentile converts only had to “abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood” (Acts 15:20).
St. Silas went with the other Apostles to Antioch, and after some time St. Jude returned to Jerusalem, but St. Silas helped St. Paul, going with him on his missionary journeys to Syria, Cilicia, and Macedonia. In Philippi they were arrested, beaten, and thrown into prison, where they converted the warden and his family after they prayed and an earthquake happened. At Corinth, St. Silas was made as its first bishop by St. Paul, and he lived out his life peacefully there until his repose after a life full of virtue, love, service, and evangelic zeal. God is truly wondrous in His Saints!