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St Cleophas: Christ’s Uncle and also the Father and Grandfather of 4 Apostles
Christ, St Cleophas, and an Unnamed Disciple, Lk 24
Saint Luke records that there were two men on the road to Emmaus on that first Easter Sunday when Christ appeared to them and made Himself known in the “breaking of the bread.” One of them is identified as “Cleophas.” Here’s the Scripture from Luke 24:
13. And behold, two of them went, the same day, to a town which was sixty furlongs from Jerusalem, named Emmaus.14. And they talked together of all these things which had happened.15. And it came to pass that while they talked and reasoned with themselves, Jesus himself also, drawing near, went with them.16. But their eyes were held, that they should not know him.17. And he said to them: What are these discourses that you hold one with another as you walk and are sad?18. And the one of them, whose name was Cleophas, answering, said to him: Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things that have been done there in these days?
Who was this Cleophas? Cornelius a Lapide, drawing on St Jerome, reports that Cleophas was “the brother of S. Joseph the husband of the Blessed Virgin, the father of S. James the less, and S. Jude, and the grandfather of S. James the greater and S. John, who were the sons of Salome the daughter of Cleophas.”
Let’s break that down:
- Cleophas was the brother of St Joseph and the brother-in-law of the Holy Mother of God (so says St Jerome).
- Cleophas was the father of St James the Less, St Jude, and Mary Salome (one of the three Marys at the empty tomb).
- Cleophas was the grandfather of St James the Greater and St John since Cleophas’ daughter Mary Salome was the mother of St James the Greater and St John.
This would make Cleophas the father of two Apostles and the grandfather of two Apostles. This would also entail that James the Less and Jude were the uncles of James the Greater and John.
The martyrology of the Catholic Church identifies the date of the martyrdom of Cleophas as September 25th. He was martyred at the hands of Jewish authorities in Judea.
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