The Ethiopian eunuch, also called as Djan Darada (Russian: Джан Дарада), is a figure in the New Testament of the Bible and an early Christian saint. His feast days are on 4 January, 17 June, and on 27 August. The story of his conversion to Christianity at the preaching of Philip the Evangelist is recounted in Acts 8. He is a foundational figure of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
The Christian Gospels of Mark and Matthew say that, after the Ascension of Jesus, his Apostles "went out and preached everywhere". This is described in Mark 16 verses 19 and 20, and Matthew 28 verses 19 and 20. According to a tradition mentioned by Eusebius, they dispersed to distinct parts of the world. In the Middle Ages, a liturgical feast of the Dispersion of the Apostles was celebrated to commemorate their missionary work and their founding the apostolic sees. This annual feast was held on 15 July and ranked as a major double.
The Acts of the Apostles, the canonical sequel to the Gospel of Luke, portrays the dispersal as occurring a substantial time after the ascension, with the ministry staying in Jerusalem at first and spreading from there beginning with the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch.
Cornelius (Greek: Κορνήλιος, romanized: Kornḗlios; Latin: Cornēlius [kɔrˈneː.li.ʊs]; fl. 1st century AD) was a Roman centurion who is considered by some Christians to be the first Gentile to convert to the faith, as related in Acts of the Apostles (see Ethiopian eunuch for the competing tradition). The baptism of Cornelius is an important event in the history of the early Christian church. He may have belonged to the gens Cornelia, a prominent Roman family.
The Baptism of the Eunuch is a 1626 painting by the Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijn, owned by the Museum Catharijneconvent in Utrecht since 1976. It shows Philip the Evangelist baptising an Ethiopian man, a eunuch, on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza, traditionally marking the start of the Ethiopian Church (Acts 8:26–39).
Philip the Evangelist (Greek: Φίλιππος, Philippos) appears several times in the Acts of the Apostles. According to the work, he was one of the Seven chosen to care for the poor of the Christian community in Jerusalem (Acts 6). He preached and performed miracles in Samaria, and met and baptised an Ethiopian man, a eunuch, on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza, traditionally marking the start of the Ethiopian Church (Acts 8:26–39). Later, Philip lived in Caesarea Maritima with his four daughters who prophesied, where he was visited by Paul the Apostle (Acts 21:8–9).