Crazy superstition church nonsense

The church never canonized Dismas, though he is regarded as a saint by virtue of Jesus saying he would be in Paradise.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barabbas
was freed and jesus cruxified instead

In his 2007 Encyclical Spe Salvi, Pope Benedict XVI mentions Barabbas in this context: "Jesus was not Spartacus, he was not engaged in a fight for political liberation like Barrabas or Bar-Kochba"

Various authors contend Barabbas's crime would translate today as terrorism

Jesus was known as "bar-Abba", because of his custom of addressing God as 'Abba' in prayer, and referring to God as Abba in his preaching. It follows that when the Jewish crowd clamored before Pontius Pilate to "free Bar Abba" they could have meant Jesus. Anti-Semitic elements in the Christian church, the argument goes, altered the narrative to make it appear that the demand was for the freedom of somebody else (a brigand or insurrectionist) named "Barabbas". This was, the theory goes, part of the tendency to shift the blame for the Crucifixion towards the Jews and away from the Romans.

This practice of releasing a prisoner is said .. to be an element in a literary creation of Mark, who needed to have a contrast to the true "son of the father" in order to set up an edifying contest, in a form of parable.

a similar episode .. --of a crowd picking one figure over another figure similar to the other--occurred in The Odyssey, where Odysseus entered the palace disguised as a beggar and defeated a real beggar to reclaim his throne. Mark borrowed from this section of The Odyssey and used it to pen the Barabbas tale, only this time Jesus- the protagonist- loses to highlight the cruelness of Jesus' persecutors

The story of Barabbas has special social significances, partly because it has frequently been used to lay the blame for the Crucifixion on the Jews and justify anti-Semitism, forming the basis for allegations of Jewish deicide.

Barnabas Died 61 AD .. Patronage Cyprus, Antioch, against hailstorms, peacemaker
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnabas
Saint Barnabas (1st century), born Joseph, was an Early Christian convert, one of the earliest disciples in Jerusalem. Like almost all Christians at the time, see also Jewish Christians, Barnabas was Jewish, specifically a Levite. Termed an apostle, he and Saint Paul undertook missionary journeys together and defended Gentile converts against the demands of stricter church leader. He is traditionally identified as the founder of the Cypriot Church, martyred at Salamis (AD 61). The feast day of St Barnabas is celebrated on June 11

Who were the robbers, thieves, criminals who were crucified along with Jesus?

www.google.com/search?q=jesus+gestas+Demas

In Christian tradition, Saint Dismas (sometimes spelled Dysmas or only Dimas, or even Dumas), also known as the Good Thief or the Penitent Thief, is the "good thief" described in the Gospel of Luke. This unnamed thief, crucified alongside Jesus, repents of his sins, and asks Jesus to remember him in his kingdom. The name Dismas for this thief dates back to the 12th century, and various traditions have assigned him other names.

The two men were crucified at the same time as Jesus, one on his right hand, and one on his left (Matthew 27:38, Mark 15:27-28, Luke 23:33, John 19:18), which Mark interprets as fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah 53:12. According to Matthew, both of the "thieves" at first mocked Jesus (Matthew 27:44); Luke however, mentions only that one of the "thieves" mocked him (Luke 23:39). According to the Gospel of Luke 23:39-43:

39 Now one of the criminals hanging there reviled Jesus, saying, "Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us." 40 The other, however, rebuking him, said in reply, "Have you no fear of God, for you are subject to the same condemnation? 41 And indeed, we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal." 42 Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." 43 He replied to him, "Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

The names come from the Gospel of Necodemus also known as the Acta Pilati

CHAP. 10.--And when Jesus was scourged, he delivered Him to the Jews to be crucified, and two robbers with Him; one by name Dismas, and the other by name Gestas. And when they came to the place, they stripped Him of His garments, and girt Him about with a linen cloth, and put a crown of thorns upon His head. Likewise also they hanged the two robbers with Him, Dismas on the right and Gestas on the left. And Jesus said: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And the soldiers parted His garments among them. And the people stood waiting; and their chief priests and judges mocked Him, saying among themselves: He saved others, now let him save himself; if he is the Son of God, let him come down from the cross. And the soldiers mocked Him, falling prostrate before Him, and offering vinegar with gall, and saying: If thou art the King of the Jews, set thyself free.

From the old Catholic Encyclopedia:

This work does not assume to have written by Pilate, but to have been derived from the official acts preserved in the praetorium at Jerusalem. The alleged Hebrew original is attributed to Nicodemus. The title "Gospel of Nicodemus" is of medieval origin. The apocryphon gained wide credit in the Middle Ages, and has considerably affected the legends of our Saviour's Passion. Its popularity is attested by the number of languages in which it exists, each of these being represented by two or more recensions. We possess a text in Greek, the original language; a Coptic, an Armenian and a Latin, besides modern translations. The Latin versions were naturally its most current form and were printed several times in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. One class of the Latin manuscripts contain as an appendix or continuation, the "Cura Sanitatis Tiberii", the oldest form of the Veronica legend.

========

Dismas is .. the Good Thief crucified with Christ on Calvary. The other thief is known as Gestas. A completely unsubstantiated myth from the Arabic Gospel of the Infancy that enjoyed great popularity in the West during the Middle Ages had two thieves who held up the Holy Family on the way to Egypt. Dismas bought off Gestas with forty drachmas to leave them unmolested, whereupon the Infant predicted that they would be crucified with Him in Jerusalem, and that Dismas would accompany Him to Paradise. His feast day is March 25th.

www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=00Ak0q

Patron Saint of GUAM

READ: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Dismas

Died c. 33 A.D., Golgotha Hill outside Jerusalem
Venerated in Eastern Orthodox Church
Roman Catholic Church
Feast March 25
Attributes Wearing a loincloth and holding his cross; sometimes, standing in Paradise
Patronage prisoners, especially condemned prisoners; undertakers; repentant thieves; Merizo, Guam

==================

NEW ADVENT story: (haha.. )

After a trial, therefore, Pilate the procurator ordered Him to be nailed to the cross, along with the two robbers. And they were nailed up along with Jesus, Gestas on the left, and Demas on the right.

And he that was on the left began to cry out, saying to Jesus: See how many evil deeds I have done in the earth; and if I had known that you were the king, I should have cut off you also. And why do you call yourself Son of God, and canst not help yourself in necessity? how can you afford it to another one praying for help? If you are the Christ, come down from the cross, that I may believe in you. But now I see you perishing along with me, not like a man, but like a wild beast. And many other things he began to say against Jesus, blaspheming and gnashing his teeth upon Him. For the robber was taken alive in the snare of the devil. 2 Timothy 2:26

But the robber on the right hand, whose name was Demas, seeing the Godlike grace of Jesus, thus cried out: I know You, Jesus Christ, that You are the Son of God. I see You, Christ, adored by myriads of myriads of angels. Pardon me my sins which I have done. Do not in my trial make the stars come against me, or the moon, when You shall judge all the world; because in the night I have accomplished my wicked purposes. Do not urge the sun, which is now darkened on account of You, to tell the evils of my heart, for no gift can I give You for the remission of my sins. Already death is coming upon me because of my sins; but Yours is the propitiation. Deliver me, O Lord of all, from Your fearful judgment. Do not give the enemy power to swallow me up, and to become heir of my soul, as of that of him who is hanging on the left; for I see how the devil joyfully takes his soul, and his body disappears. Do not even order me to go away into the portion of the Jews; for I see Moses and the patriarchs in great weeping, and the devil rejoicing over them. Before, then, O Lord, my spirit departs, order my sins to be washed away, and remember me the sinner in Your kingdom, when upon the great most lofty throne you shall judge the twelve tribes of Israel. Matthew 19:28 For You have prepared great punishment for Your world on account of Yourself.

And the robber having thus spoken, Jesus says to him: Amen, amen; I say to you, Demas, that today you shall be with me in paradise. Luke 23:43 And the sons of the kingdom, the children of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses, shall be cast out into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Matthew 8:11-12 And you alone shall dwell in paradise until my second appearing, when I am to judge those who do not confess my name. And He said to the robber: Go away, and tell the cherubim and the powers, that turn the flaming sword, that guard paradise from the time that Adam, the first created, was in paradise, and sinned, and kept not my commandments, and I cast him out thence. And none of the first shall see paradise until I am to come the second time to judge living and dead. And He wrote thus: Jesus Christ the Son of God, who have come down from the heights of the heavens, who have come forth out of the bosom of the invisible Father without being separated from Him, and who have come down into the world to be made flesh, and to be nailed to a cross, in order that I might save Adam, whom I fashioned.to my archangelic powers, the gatekeepers of paradise, to the officers of my Father: I will and order that he who has been crucified along with me should go in, should receive remission of sins through me; and that he, having put on an incorruptible body, should go in to paradise, and dwell where no one has ever been able to dwell.

And, behold, after He had said this, Jesus gave up the ghost, on the day of the preparation, at the ninth hour. And there was darkness over all the earth; and from a great earthquake that happened, thesanctuary fell down, and the wing of the temple.
Chapter 4.

And I Joseph begged the body of Jesus, and put it in a new tomb, where no one had been put. And of the robber on the right the body was not found; but of him on the left, as the form of a dragon, so was his body.

And after I had begged the body of Jesus to bury, the Jews, carried away by hatred and rage, shut me up in prison, where evil-doers were kept under restraint. And this happened to me on the evening of the Sabbath, whereby our nation transgressed the law. And, behold, that same nation of ours endured fearful tribulations on the Sabbath.

And now, on the evening of the first of the week, at the fifth hour of the night, Jesus comes to me in the prison, along with the robber who had been crucified with Him on the right, whom He sent into paradise. And there was a great light in the building. And the house was hung up by the four corners, and the place was opened, and I came out. Then I firstrecognised Jesus, and again the robber, bringing a letter to Jesus. And as we were going into Galilee, there shone a great light, which the creation did not produce. And there was also with the robber a great fragrance out of paradise.

And Jesus, having sat down in a certain place, thus read: We, the cherubim and the six-winged, who have been ordered by Your Godhead to watch the garden of paradise, make the following statement through the robber who was crucified along with You, by Your arrangement: When we saw the print of the nails of the robber crucified along with You, and the shining light of the letter of Your Godhead, the fire indeed was extinguished, not being able to bear the splendour of the print; and we crouched down, being in great fear. For we heard that the Maker of heaven and earth, and of the whole creation, had come down from on high to dwell in the lower parts of the earth, on account of Adam, the first created. And when we beheld the undefiled cross shining like lightning from the robber, gleaming with sevenfold the light of the sun, trembling fell upon us. We felt a violent shaking of the world below; and with a loud voice, the ministers of Hades said, along with us: Holy, holy, holy is He who in the beginning was in the highest. And the powers sent up a cry: O Lord, You have been made manifest in heaven and in earth, bringing joy to the world; and, a greater gift than this, You have freed Your own image from death by the invisible purpose of the ages.
Chapter 5.

After I had beheld these things, as I was going into Galilee with Jesus and the robber, Jesus was transfigured, and was not as formerly, before He was crucified, but was altogether light; and angels always ministered to Him, and Jesus spoke with them. And I remained with Him three days. And no one of His disciples was with Him, except the robber alone.

And in the middle of the feast of unleavened bread, His disciple John comes, and we no longer beheld the robber as to what took place. And John asked Jesus: Who is this, that You have not made me to be seen by him? But Jesus answered him nothing. And falling down before Him, he said: Lord, I know that You have loved me from the beginning, and why do You not reveal to me that man? Jesus says to him: Why do you seek what is hidden? Are you still without understanding? Do you not perceive the fragrance of paradise filling the place? Do you not know who it is? The robber on the cross has become heir of paradise. Amen, amen; I say to you, that it shall belong to him alone until that the great day shall come. And John said: Make me worthy to behold him.

And while John was yet speaking, the robber suddenly appeared; and John, struck with astonishment, fell to the earth. And the robber was not in his first form, as before John came; but he was like a king in great power, having on him the cross. And the voice of a great multitude was sent forth: You have come to the place prepared for you in paradise. We have been commanded by Him that has sent you, to serve you until the great day. And after this voice, both the robber and I Joseph vanished, and I was found in my own house; and I no longer saw Jesus.

And they lived happily ever after ...

www.newadvent.org/fathers/0813.htm

=============

Historically, Jesus was crucified along with two others, though only Luke describes one of them as penitent, and even that gospel doesn't name him. Luke's unnamed penitent thief was later assigned the name Dismas in the the Gospel of Nicodemus. The name of "Dismas" was adapted from a Greek word meaning "sunset" or "death." The other thief's name is given as Gestas.

The apocryphal Arabic Infancy Gospel calls the two thieves Titus and Dumachus, and adds a tale about how Titus (the good one) prevented the other thieves in his company from robbing Mary and Joseph during their Flight into Egypt.
In the Russian tradition the Good Thief's name is Rakh (Russian: ...).

Patriarch Theophilus of Alexandria (385-412) wrote a Homily on the Crucifixion and the Good Thief, which is a classic of Coptic literature.

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, one of the most moving hymns of Good Friday is entitled, The Good Thief (or The Wise Thief, Church Slavonic: Razboinika blagorazumnago), and speaks of how Christ granted Dismas Paradise. There are several moving compositions of this hymn which are used in the Russian Orthodox Church and form one of the highlights of the Matins service on Good Friday.

In medieval art, St Dismas is often depicted as accompanying Jesus in the Harrowing of Hell as related in 1 Peter 3:19.20 and the Apostles' Creed (though neither text mentions the thief).

it is very common for prison chapels to be dedicated to Saint Dismas, since he represents not only the epitome of a repentant malefactor, but also God's willingness to forgive even at the last moment.

"The Wise Thief didst Thou make worthy of Paradise, in a single moment, O Lord. By the wood of thy Cross illumine me as well, and save me."

I have heard it said that the Greeks come to the Holy Friday service to hear the hymn "Today He Who hung the earth upon the waters is hung on the tree," but the Russians come to hear about the thief who stole paradise.

Stumble It!