The Feast
The Synaxis is an assembly of the apostles, a single collective commemoration set in deliberate sequence after the June 29 feast of Peter and Paul. In Orthodox liturgical practice an important feast is frequently followed by such a synaxis honoring those connected with it, and June 30 gathers the whole apostolic college in one observance even though each apostle already has his own particular feast day during the year.
The commemoration is ancient: instructions for celebrating it survive from the fourth century. The Emperor Constantine the Great built a church in Constantinople in honor of the Twelve Apostles, a monument to the early veneration of the apostolic body.
The Twelve
The scriptural lists of the apostles are found in Matthew 10:2, Mark 3:14, Luke 6:12, and Acts 1:13, 26. The Twelve commemorated in the synaxis are Andrew, James the son of Zebedee, John the Theologian, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Jude (also called Thaddeus), Simon the Zealot, and Matthias. Andrew was the brother of the Apostle Peter, while James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were called the sons of Thunder.
After Judas Iscariot's betrayal and death, the apostle Matthias was chosen to complete the number of the Twelve, as related in the Acts of the Apostles. In Orthodox iconography and hymnography the Apostle Paul is also included among the apostles honored on this day, and he shares the collective feast of June 30 with the Twelve.
The tradition records that the apostles sealed their preaching with martyrdom: by these accounts Peter was crucified upside-down; Andrew, James the son of Zebedee, Philip, James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus were crucified; Bartholomew was flayed and beheaded; Thomas was pierced with spears; Matthew was put to death by fire; and Matthias was stoned and then beheaded.
The Twelve and the Seventy
The Twelve Apostles are distinguished from the Seventy Apostles, the wider company of disciples whom the Lord also chose and sent out to assist in the work of preaching, as recorded in Luke 10:1-16. The Seventy have their own collective commemoration, the Synaxis of the Seventy Apostles, kept on January 4.
