Saint Apostle Hermas
of the Seventy (Hermes of Philippopolis).

The sources consulted give few details of the saint's family or upbringing. The Orthodox Church in America records that Hermas was a Greek by birth who spent much of his life in Rome. Orthodox summaries also describe him as a man of wealth who later fell into poverty because of sin, a narrative drawn from the traditional account of The Shepherd rather than from independent biographical records.

Hermas is counted among the Seventy whom Christ sent out in the Gospel of Luke, and he is recognized as an apostle in Orthodox liturgical tradition. Tradition assigns him the episcopal see of Philippopolis in Thrace, the Roman city that is today Plovdiv in Bulgaria. The sources consulted do not record the details of his consecration or the names of his immediate successors.

According to the Orthodox Church in America, the saint endured much grief from pagans for preaching the Gospel, and he died in peace. The Orthodox Wiki and the Prologue of Ohrid tradition instead describe him as ending his life as a martyr. The two accounts differ on this point, and this page reports both rather than resolving the question.

Hermas is venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church with commemorations on May 31, November 5, and January 4. The Shepherd of Hermas was once read so widely that some early Church Fathers treated it with great respect, and the Muratorian Fragment, from around the late second century, discusses it. Scholars now distinguish the author of The Shepherd from the bishop of Philippopolis, and the Orthodox Wiki notes that the Apostle Hermes associated with Dalmatia is a separate commemoration.