APOSTOLIC

The adjective affirming a relation of people, activities, or objects to the apostles, their mission, their actions. It is first found in Ignatius of Antioch (Trall. ) and the Martyrdom of Polycarp. In the patristic age the word serves to represent the relation of origin and similarity of the Church to the twelve and paul (apostolicity). It is applied to the immediate disciples and successors of the Twelve and Paul; from the 3rd and 4th centuries to bishops; from the Middle Ages, religious, missionaries, priests, and lay people are called viri apostolici. Ecclesia apostolica is a Church established by one of the Twelve or their immediate successors; from the 4th century it designates every episcopal see and the whole Church (H. Denzinger, Enchiridion symbolorum 3, 43—as a property and a note). In the 6th century, particularly in the West, apostolic is restricted to the papal sphere (cf. 1917 Codex iuris canonici cc.3, 4, 7 etc.). Vita apostolica is, from the 2nd and 3rd centuries on, a life like that of the Apostles, i.e., an ascetic life (Nilus of Ancyra, Ep. 3.26; Patrologia Graeca 79:384), the monastic life (Socrates, Hist. eccl. 4.23; Patrologia Graeca 67:512), from the 6th century on rather the active pastoral life; so also among the sects.

As a noun apostolicus means bishop (Tertullian), in the 6th century pope, and later the receiver of certain papal letters. As early as the 4th and 5th centuries apostolici are heretics; apostolicum, the word of an Apostle (Augustine); later the designation was connected with a creed, a lectionary, letters and decrees of the popes. Apostolica were the official vestments of bishops.

See Also: apostolate.

Bibliography: h. bacht, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 1:758–759, bibliog. k. g. steck, Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart 1:516, bibliog. w. nagel, Der Begriff des Apostolischen in der christlichen Frühzeit bis zur Kanonsbildung (Habilitationsschrift, typescript; Leipzig 1958).

[f. klostermann]