This holiday is celebrated the day after the commemoration of the First Apostles Peter and Paul. It is very ancient, the first mention of it is found already in the documents of the IV century.
The holiday is dedicated to the closest disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. These are Peter, Andrew, James Zebedee, John the Theologian, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew Levi, James Alphaeus, Judas Thaddeus, Simon the Canaanite. And also Matthias, who was chosen to be one of the 12 apostles instead of the fallen Judas Iscariot.
"The Apostle" (Greek. apostolos) means "messenger". This Greek word, which has become firmly used in the Russian language, refers to people who were called by Jesus Christ, became His disciples and sent by Him to preach the Gospel and organize the Church. The apostles faced an incredibly difficult task: to move the rusty wheel of human History from its place, to spread Christianity to the limits of the earth... If I preach the gospel, then I have nothing to boast about, because this is my necessary duty, and woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! (1 Cor 9:16) A number of people who carried the good news to nations who did not know about Christ, often at the risk of their lives, were called equal-to-the-apostles in the Church and glorified as saints.
In fact, there were more apostles. We know that many people followed Christ. In Scripture, we find mention of the seventy disciples closest to Him, who are also called apostles. One of the most famous apostles, Paul, was also not among the twelve.
So why was it necessary to single out this particular small group of people and assign them some special service? The fact is that the number 12 coincides with the number of the twelve tribes of Israel.
By the time of Christ's preaching, only two and a half of the twelve families of Israel had survived: Judah, Benjamin, and half of Levi. The remaining nine and a half clans have been considered extinct since the conquest of the Northern Kingdom (722 BC). The Jews believed that God would bring these tribes that had disappeared, dissolved among other peoples, to their homeland and restore the people of God. The election of the twelve apostles by Christ clearly testifies that this long-awaited time is coming. However, instead of collecting the disappeared tribes of the people of Israel somewhere, that is, instead of restoring the former, Old Israel, Christ creates a New Israel - the Church. To do this, He chooses 12 founders of God's New people, the apostles, and sends them into the world.
The Savior warned the disciples: I am sending you out like sheep among wolves (Mt 10:16). These words may seem unusual if we recall what was said to the apostles who went to preach in Galilee, that is, among Jewish co-religionists. Indeed, the first period of the sermon was serene. The apostles were received in homes, listened to, and respected... However, these words began to be perceived quite differently by the disciples when Christ was crucified and His name began to be blasphemed by Jewish elders and spiritual leaders. In Israel itself, the apostles began to be persecuted, and their mission turned out to be even more dangerous outside Israel, in pagan lands.
The apostles were repeatedly beaten, imprisoned, and otherwise persecuted and tortured. Only one of the twelve closest disciples of the Savior, the Apostle John the Theologian, died of natural causes. All the others suffered for Christ and were killed.
By creating Christian communities, the apostles everywhere left behind people who were entrusted with a special ministry — the spiritual care of believers. This is how the first successors of the apostles, appointed directly by themselves, appeared — the bishops of the Church. Those, in turn, passed on their ministry to the next generation of clergy through the Sacrament of the priesthood — and every living priest is connected with the apostles by a long line of people who passed on their ministry to each other. That is why the Church is called Apostolic. One of the most famous followers of the work of the twelve apostles was the Apostle Paul, who did not know the Savior during His earthly life. Initially a persecutor of Christians, Saul miraculously converted to the faith and became one of the most famous preachers of Christ. He is called the "apostle of the Gentiles" because Paul was one of the first to take the preaching of Christianity outside the Jewish world.