Dismas | |
|---|---|
 15th-centuryArab ChristianIcon of Saint Dismas from theBerlin State Museum, reading "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom". | |
| The Penitent Thief | |
| Born | Galilee,Herodian Kingdom of Judea,Roman Empire |
| Died | c. 30–33 AD Golgotha Hill outsideJerusalem,Judea, Roman Empire |
| Cause of death | Crucifixion |
| Venerated in | Eastern Orthodox Church Catholic Church Oriental Orthodox Church[1] |
| Canonized | c. 30–33 AD,Golgotha Hill outsideJerusalem,Judaea, Roman Empire byJesus Christ[2] |
| Majorshrine | Chapel of Saint Helena,Church of the Holy Sepulchre,Jerusalem |
| Feast | 25 March (Roman Catholic), 26 March (Poland) Good Friday (Eastern Orthodox) |
| Attributes | |
| Patronage | Prisoners(especiallycondemned) Funeral directors Repentant thieves Merizo, Guam San Dimas,Mexico Church of Saint Dismas,Dannemora,New York |
Thepenitent thief, also known as thegood thief,wise thief,grateful thief, orthief on the cross, is one of two unnamed thieves in Luke's account of thecrucifixion of Jesus in theNew Testament. TheGospel of Luke describes him asking Jesus to "remember him" when Jesus comes intohis kingdom. The other, as theimpenitent thief, challenges Jesus to save himself and both of them to prove that he is the Messiah.
He is officiallyvenerated as a saint in theEastern Orthodox Church,Catholic Church andOriental Orthodox church. TheRoman Martyrology places his commemoration on 25 March, together with theFeast of the Annunciation, because of the ancient Christian tradition[3] that Christ (and the penitent thief) were crucified and died exactly on the anniversary of Christ'sincarnation.
He is given the nameDismas in theGospel of Nicodemus and is traditionally known in Catholicism asSaint Dismas[4] (sometimesDysmas; in Spanish and Portuguese,Dimas). Other traditions have bestowed other names:
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Two men were crucified at the same time as Jesus, one on his right and one on his left,[10] which theGospel of Mark interprets as fulfillment of the prophecy ofIsaiah 53:12 ("And he was numbered with the transgressors").[11] According to the Gospels ofMatthew and Mark, respectively, both of the thieves mocked Jesus;[12] Luke 23, however, relates:
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."[13]
The Gospel of John account of Jesus' death merely names both of these criminals as "....and two others" without naming their crimes.
Various attempts have been made to reconcile the apparent contradiction between the account in Luke and the overlapping account in Mark and Matthew.Tatian omitted/rejected the Markan/Matthean tradition in hisDiatessaron, andEphrem the Syrian apparently followed suit.Origen of Alexandria,Eustathius of Antioch, andEpiphanius of Salamis described the differences as reflections of different, yet complementary authorial intent. Origen and his many heirs promoted a chronological harmonization, wherein both thieves at first reviled Jesus, only for one thief to repent on the spot. Epiphanius—followed byAmbrose of Milan andAugustine of Hippo—contended that Mark and Matthew, for the sake of concision, employed a figure of speech calledsyllepsis whereby the plural was used to indicate the singular.[14] Later commentators, such asFrederic Farrar, have drawn attention to the difference between the Greek words used: "The two first Synoptists tell us that both the robbers during an early part of the hours of crucifixionreproached Jesus (ὠνείδιζον), but we learn from St Luke that only one of them used injurious and insulting language to Him (ἐβλασφήμει)."[15]
The phrase translated "Amen, I say to you, today you will be in paradise" in Luke 23:43 ("Ἀμήν σοι λέγω σήμερον μετ’ ἐμοῦ ἔσῃ ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ."[16]Amén soi légo sémeron met' emoû ése en tôi paradeísoi) is disputed in a minority of versions and commentaries. The Greek manuscripts are without punctuation, so attribution of theadverb "today" to theverb "be", as "Amen I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise" (the majority view), or the verb "say", as "Amen I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise" (the minority view), is dependent on analysis ofword order conventions inKoine Greek. The majority of ancientBible translations also follow the majority view, with only theAramaic languageCuretonian Gospels offering significant testimony to the minority view.[17] As a result, some prayers recognize the good thief as the only person confirmed as a saint—that is, a person known to be in Paradise after death—by theBible, and by Jesus himself.Thomas Aquinas wrote:
The words of The Lord (This day ... in paradise) must therefore be understood not of an earthly or corporeal paradise, but of that spiritual paradise in which all may be said to be, who are in the enjoyment of the divine glory. Hence to place, the thief went up with Christ to heaven, that he might be with Christ, as it was said to him: "Thou shalt be with Me in Paradise"; but as to reward, he was in Paradise, for he there tasted and enjoyed the divinity of Christ, together with the other saints.[18][19][20]
Only the Gospel of Luke describes one of the criminals as penitent, and that gospel does not name him.
Augustine of Hippo does not name the thief, but wonders if he might not have been baptized at some point.[21]
According to tradition on the Scripture,[22] the good thief was crucified to Jesus's right and the other thief was crucified to his left. For this reason, depictions of thecrucifixion of Jesus often show Jesus's head inclined to his right, showing his acceptance of the good thief. In the Russian Orthodox Church, bothcrucifixes and crosses are usually made with three bars: the top one, representing thetitulus (the inscription thatPontius Pilate wrote and was nailed above Jesus' head); the longer crossbar on which Jesus' hands were nailed; and a slanted bar at the bottom representing the footrest to which Jesus' feet were nailed. The footrest is slanted, pointing up towards the good thief, and pointing down towards the other.
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According toJohn Chrysostom, the thief dwelt in the desert and robbed or murdered anyone unlucky enough to cross his path. According toPope Gregory I, he "was guilty of blood, even his brother's blood" (fratricide).[18][19][20]
According to theUnited States Conference of Catholic Bishops commentary on John 18:40, the term commonly translated as thief – léstés[23] – can also mean "a guerrilla warrior fighting for nationalistic aims."[24]
Luke's unnamed penitent thief was later assigned the name Dismas in an early Greek recension of theActa Pilati and the LatinGospel of Nicodemus, portions of which may be dated to the late fourth century. The name "Dismas" may have been adapted from aGreek word meaning "dying".[4] The other thief's name is given asGestas. In theSyriac Infancy Gospel'sLife of the Good Thief (Histoire Du Bon Larron French 1868, English 1882), Augustine of Hippo said, the thief said to Jesus, the child: "O most blessed of children, if ever a time should come when I shall crave Thy Mercy, remember me and forget not what has passed this day."[18][19][20]
Anne Catherine Emmerich saw the Holy Family "exhausted and helpless"; according to Augustine of Hippo andPeter Damian,the Holy Family met Dismas, in these circumstances.[25]Pope Theophilus of Alexandria (385–412) wrote aHomily on the Crucifixion and the Good Thief, which is a classic ofCoptic literature.
In Coptic Orthodoxy, he is named Demas.[5] This is the name given to him in theNarrative of Joseph of Arimathea.[6]
The apocryphalSyriac 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 robbingMary andJoseph during theirflight into Egypt.
In the Russian tradition, the Good Thief's name is "Rakh" (Russian: Рах).[citation needed]
The Catholic Church remembers the Good Thief on 25 March. In the Roman Martyrology, the following entry is given: "Commemoration of the holy thief in Jerusalem who confessed to Christ andcanonized him by Jesus himself[26] on the cross at that moment and merited to hear from him: 'Today you will be with me in Paradise.'"A number of towns, includingSan Dimas, California, are named after him. Also,parish churches are named after him, such as the Church of the Good Thief inKingston, Ontario, Canada—built by convicts at nearbyKingston Penitentiary, Saint Dismas Church inWaukegan, Illinois, theOld Catholic Parish of St Dismas inCoseley and theChurch of St. Dismas, the Good Thief, a Catholic church at theClinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York.
TheEastern Orthodox Church remembers him onGood Friday, along with the crucifixion. TheSynaxarion offers this couplet in his honor:
Eden's locked gates the Thief has opened wide,
By putting in the key, "Remember me."
He is commemorated in a traditional Eastern Orthodox prayer (the troparion tou deipnou) said before receiving theEucharist: "I will not speak of Thy Mystery to Thine enemies, neither likeJudas will I give Thee a kiss; but like the thief will I confess Thee: Remember me, O Lord in Thy Kingdom."[27] According to the liturgical scholar Robert Taft, this hymn was inserted into the Holy Thursday liturgy in Constantinople in the late 6th century.[28] In the Eastern Orthodox Church, one of the 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.[29] Several compositions of this hymn[30] are used in the Russian Orthodox Church and form one of the highlights of theMatins service on Good Friday.
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The earliest depiction of the thief may be the wooden relief of the doors of Saint Sabine in Rome. Here the good thief is apparently located to the right side of Jesus, similar to the famous late sixth-century depiction of the crucifixion in the Rabbula Gospels.[31]
Inmedieval art, St Dismas is often depicted as accompanying Jesus in theHarrowing of Hell as related in1 Peter 3:19–20 and theApostles' Creed (though neither text mentions the thief). Notable books that explore the place of the good thief in art include monographs by Mitchell Merback (The Thief, the Cross, and the Wheel), Mikeal Parsons and Heidi Hornik (Illuminating Luke, vol. 3), and Christiane Klapisch-Zuber (Le voleur de paradis).
InSamuel Beckett'sWaiting for Godot, the main characters Vladimir and Estragon briefly discuss the inconsistencies between theFour Evangelists' accounts of the penitent and impenitent thieves. Vladimir concludes that since only Luke says that one of the two was saved, "then the two of them must have been damned [...] why believe him rather than the others?"[32]
Dismas Ministry is a US based national Catholic prison outreach that provides faith, prayer and scripture resources to prisoners and those who minister to them in all 50 US states.
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InPoul Anderson's Technic History (a science fiction story cycle),Nicholas van Rijn (2376 toc. 2500), CEO of Solar Spice and Liquors keeps a Martian sandroot statue of Saint Dismas, to whom he frequently burns candles. At one point he runs out of candles and stuffs a large number of IOUs under the statue. He also comments "... Ho! Saint Dismas will think he was martyred in a grease fire."
Dismas Hardy is the main protagonist in a series of legal and crime thriller novels byJohn Lescroart.
Rob Seabrook's 2021 novelBeneath the Tamarisk Tree, tells the story of St Dismas, imagining his background that led him to the point of crucifixion and what his arrival in heaven may have looked like.
The thief features in Christian popular music, as in Christian rock bandThird Day's 1995 song "Thief", and the name of the Christian rock bandDizmas. The thief is the narrator inSydney Carter's controversial song "Friday Morning".[33]
In "Vida Loka, Pt. 2", the Brazilian rap groupRacionais MC's, refer to Dismas as a "firstthug life of all time".[34]
Christian metal band Holyname’s last song on their self titled album is called “St. Dismas” and is about his and Jesus Christ's crucifixions.
The rapperKa’s final album prior to his death was titledThe Thief Next to Jesus.
Dismas is prominently mentioned throughout the 1946 filmThe Hoodlum Saint starringWilliam Powell,Esther Williams andAngela Lansbury.
In the 1967 romantic comedy caper filmFitzwilly, butler mastermind Claude Fitzwilliam (Dick Van Dyke) and his larcenous staff operate St. Dismas Thrift Shoppe in Philadelphia, a fictional charity where they send and store their stolen loot.
San Dimas, California andSan Dimas High School are featured in theBill & Ted media franchise.
He is portrayed byStelio Savante in the award-winning Good Friday filmOnce We Were Slaves directed byDallas Jenkins[35]
In the 2022 filmClerks III, Elias mentions the Good Thief multiple times, quoting him as saying "Jesus did no wrong, whereas we are but thieves". In arunning gag, everybody hears "but thieves" as "butt thieves" and wonders out loud what that means.
a man named demas.
