Concerning the repentant thief on the cross

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“And Jesus said to him: Amen I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43, Douay Rheims)
Did the church ever give a name and feast day to the robber Jesus said those words to?
If so what is the name and when is the feast day?
 
Dismas is the name of “the good (repentant) thief” and he is a saint. The unrepentant thief was named Gestas. The feast day for Saint Dismas is March 25.

On a somewhat related note, the Irish love name the name Dismas. Many Irish boys have Dismas as their middle name. One of the NYFD firefighters that died on 9-11 was named Robert Dismas McMahon.

catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=114

firehero.org/fallen-firefighter/robert-dismas-mcmahon/

There is also a Catholic group that serves the needs of Catholic prisoners. They are called The Dismas Ministry.

dismasministry.org/
 
I’ve often wondered if maybe the Church shouldn’t have moved the comma over two words to the right?
 
Irish_Cabbie said:
Dismas is the name of “the good (repentant) thief” and he is a saint. The unrepentant thief was named Gestas. The feast day for Saint Dismas is March 25.

On a somewhat related note, the Irish love name the name Dismas. Many Irish boys have Dismas as their middle name. One of the NYFD firefighters that died on 9-11 was named Robert Dismas McMahon.

catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=114

firehero.org/fallen-firefighter/robert-dismas-mcmahon/

There is also a Catholic group that serves the needs of Catholic prisoners. They are called The Dismas Ministry.

dismasministry.org/
Click to expand...
When was he canonized? Was he one of the first? Kinda curious.
 
TxGodfollower said:
When was he canonized? Was he one of the first? Kinda curious.
Click to expand...
I would say that he was canonized by Christ on Good Friday. (“Truly I tell you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” – Luke 23:43). That said, I am not sure when the Church actually canonized St. Dismas. Good question, TxGodfollower.
 
I doubt he was ever canonized. As far as I am aware, the actual canonization process never got terribly official and centralized until quite late in the game. Prior to that, saints were just sort of made locally, and eventually kind of got “grandfathered in” once the Church started making the process of canonization a pretty regular one.

Not going to back that up with any citations because I currently don’t have any/ don’t want to search. But I’m pretty sure that’s the way it went. For example, I’m also fairly sure none of the Apostles were canonized. Obviously they are saints. But the Church never did, nor had to, go through a process of canonization for them. As Jesus’ words are pretty explicit, there would be no need to go through the rigmarole of canonization for St. Dismas, either.
 
The first official canonization was in about the 10th or 11th century. I used to have the name of that saint, but can’t find it at the moment.
 
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