The etymological journey of the term apostle begins in the Greek language (apóstolos) and continues in Latin (apostŏlus) before reaching our language. The disciples who followed Jesus and were in charge of preaching his message are called apostles.
The apostles were twelve: John, Saint James the Less, Saint James the Greater, Matthew (also known as Levi), Andrew, Simon, Bartholomew (called in some cases Nathanael of Cana), Simon the Canaanite, Judas Tadeo, Tomás (or Dídimo), Felipe de Betsaida and Judas Iscariote. They were all chosen by Jesus, whom they knew personally and for whom they gave their lives. The traitor Judas Iscariote was later replaced by Matías, selected by lottery.
It must be established that all those apostles were from Galilee, with the exception of Judas Iscariot. There are various theories regarding its provenance. Thus, there are those who state that he was from Judea and then there are those who say that he was from Issachar.
Other interesting facts that not everyone knows is that, after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Judas committed suicide. From that moment, the rest of the apostles met to find him a substitute and the chosen one was none other than the mentioned Matthias.
Beyond that belief held by the Roman Catholic Church Apostolic, some religious groups considered apostles Barnabas, Silas, Paul of Tarsus, Timothy and other people who spread the word of Jesus. There are also groups that believe that today’s preachers are apostles.
Currently one of the apostles with the most “faithful” or followers is Saint James the Greater, known as the Apostle Saint James. In the Galician city of Santiago de Compostela is its temple, the Cathedral, where thousands of people come to pray to it year after year. Many of these are pilgrims who have made the famous Camino de Santiago, which ends in the aforementioned religious construction where the remains of it are considered to rest. Exactly they rest in the crypt.
It is a fundamentally religious pilgrimage of medieval origin that has the particularity of being the oldest of those that remain on the European continent.
From these notions, the individual who is responsible for spreading certain ideas or doctrines is called an apostle. For example: “The new economy minister is an apostle of neoliberalism”, “The apostles of socialism have done a lot of harm to this country”, “Five years ago I decided to be an apostle of the environmental movement”.
Precisely because of that meaning that is also given to the term apostle, we find the fact that it is established that Mahatma Gandhi, for example, is considered “the apostle of non-violence”. In the same way, it is determined that José Martí is the “apostle of independence”.
Apostles, finally, is the name of a department and a city in the Argentine province of Misiones. The area is considered the Capital of Yerba Mate as its territory is home to many plantations of this species that are used for the preparation of mate, mate cocido and tereré.
