Jason: Name Day and Patron Saint

St Jason is one of the Seventy Apostles, a disciple of St Paul whom the Apostle names among his kinsmen at the close of the Letter to the Romans. Tradition says he came from Tarsus, Paul’s own city, and was the first Christian there; St John Chrysostom identified him with the Jason who took Paul and Silas into his house at Thessalonica and was dragged before the city rulers for it. Jason became bishop of Tarsus, and his companion St Sosipater bishop of Iconium. Together they travelled west preaching the Gospel and came to the island of Kerkyra, or Corfu, where they built a church in honour of the Protomartyr Stephen and baptized many. The island’s ruler threw them into prison; there they brought seven thieves to Christ, who were martyred for the faith. The ruler’s own daughter, the virgin Kerkyra, saw their endurance, gave her riches to the poor and died a martyr. Later the apostles were cast into boiling tar and came out unharmed, and the new ruler was baptized with the name Sebastian. Jason and Sosipater then built more churches and strengthened the Church of Corfu until they reached old age. A church on the island still bears their names, and their holy heads are kept at the Monastery of St Luke in Boeotia. The Church keeps his memory on 28 April (11 May on the Old Calendar). The faithful ask his prayers for steadfast faith, for open and hospitable homes, and for the Church on Corfu he helped to found.

What the faithful pray for

• steadfast faith under pressure and trial
• homes open to the servants of the Gospel
• the faithful of Corfu and all the Greek islands
• those who preach Christ in new places
• the conversion of those who oppose the faith