Apostle of the 70: Ananias

Ananias was a Christian of Damascus in the first years of the Church. The Acts of the Apostles (9:10–19) tells that the Lord sent him in a vision to “the street called Straight”, where Saul of Tarsus, blinded on the road, was praying; Ananias laid his hands on him, Saul's sight returned, and Ananias baptized the future Apostle Paul.

Tradition counts him among the Seventy and calls him the first bishop of Damascus. His Life tells that he went on to preach in Eleutheropolis, where the governor Lucian had him tortured and then stoned outside the city; Christians from Damascus carried his body home and buried it there.