For All the Saints: Hermas, Patrobolus, Linus, Gaius, Philologus

On the Orthodox Christian calendar, five saints are honored today. I call these "walks-ons"---anyone who is mentioned in the Bible only a time or two, but who are significant nevertheless.

The Orthodox church count these five among Jesus' Seventy Disciples. This information is from http://www.abbamoses.com.

St. Hermas and St. Patrobolus, both mentioned by St. Paul in Romans 16:4. St. Hermas may be the author of the early Christian writing called The Shepherd of Hermas, and he became Bishop of Philippi. St. Patrobolus was Bishop of Pozzuoli in Italy.

St. Linus is traditionally considered the immediate successor to St. Peter as Bishop of Rome. He is mentioned in 2 Timothy 4:21.

St. Gaius (Romans 16:23) was Timothy's successor as Bishop of Ephesus.

St. Philologus (Romans 16:15) became Bishop of Sinope via the apostle Andrew.

According to my other list of saints, today is the commemoration day of Elizabeth, cousin and friend of Mary and mother of John the Baptist, in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. In the context of friendships, I wrote about Elizabeth a few years ago: http://paulstroble.blogspot.com/2012/06/friendships.html

Thank you, Lord, for these faithful people from the Bible.