Equal to the Apostles

An equal-to-the-apostles (Greek: ἰσαπόστολος, isapóstolos; Latin: aequalis apostolis; Georgian: მოციქულთასწორი, motsikultastsori; Romanian: întocmai cu Apostolii; Russian: равноапостольный, ravnoapostol'nyj; Bulgarian and Serbian: равноапостолни, ravnoapostolni) is a special title given to some saints in Eastern Orthodoxy and in Byzantine Catholicism. The title is bestowed as a recognition of these saints' outstanding service in the spreading and assertion of Christianity, comparable to that of the original apostles.

Below is a partial list of saints who are called equal-to-the-apostles:

As George Ostrogorsky relates, the insistence of pre-Christian Roman emperors on being worshipped as gods had always been a fundamental stumbling block for early Christians (see Anti-Christian policies in the Roman Empire). Nevertheless, even with the advent of Christian emperors, of which Constantine the Great was the first, the sovereign's power maintained a distinctly divine flavour. Indeed, to use Ostrogorsky's more strongly worded phrasing, "the Roman-Hellenistic cult of the sovereign lived on in the Christian Byzantine empire in all its ancient glory." The Greek term for "Equal-to-the-Apostles", isapóstolos, was used in the late Roman/Byzantine empire to contribute to this divine imperial image. Constantine himself seems to have had this in mind when, according to Eusebius of Caesarea, he designed the Church of the Holy Apostles to be his tomb in Constantinople:

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