Today is the Feast of Saint Addal, who followed Saint Thomas, and died a martyr’s death, but had a huge impact in the early Church, converting King Abgar, the Osroene, who himself, legend has it, was on a path to faith in Jesus. Saint Addal converted regions of Edessa, Syria and Persia in the second century.
St. Thomas to the court of King Abgar the Black, the second century Osroene ruler. Legendary accounts claim Abgar wrote to Christ asking Jesus to cure him of an intolerable and incurable illness. Abgar’s court was in Edessa in Asia Minor (modern Turkey). Addal cured Abgar and converted the king and his people to the faith. One of these was Addai, who became Addal’s successor. Addal is also supposed to have sent another disciple, Man, to various sites along the Tigris River. It is known that Addal did missionary work around Edessa toward the end of the second century. Both Addal and Man have been venerated in the Syrian and Persian churches since that era. Addal is recorded as a martyr for the faith.
