Apostles of the 70: Philemon and Archippos, Martyr Apphia, wife of Philemon and Equal-to the-Apostles, and Onesimus, disciple of St Paul

Philemon, Apphia and Archippus appear in the New Testament in Paul's short letter to Philemon, which greets Philemon as his “fellow worker”, Apphia as “our sister” and Archippus as his “fellow soldier”. The letter was sent to Colossae in Asia Minor. In it Paul asks Philemon to receive back his runaway slave Onesimus as a brother, and the same Onesimus is named in Colossians 4:9.

According to the tradition retold by Dimitry of Rostov, all three were converted by Paul and were killed in Colossae under the emperor Nero. Pagans broke into their prayer meeting; Archippus was stabbed, and Philemon and Apphia were stoned. Tradition counts Onesimus too among the seventy apostles and holds that he later served as a bishop.