Equal-to-apostles or equal-to-the-apostles (; ; , muʿādil ar-rusul; ; ; , ravnoapostol'nyj; Bulgarian and Serbian: , ravnoapostolni; ; Ukrainian: рівноапостольний) is a special title given to some saints in Eastern Orthodoxy and in Byzantine Catholicism. The title is bestowed as a recognition of these saints' outstanding service in the spreading and assertion of Christianity, comparable to that of the original apostles. Examples Below is a partial list of saints who are called equal-to-the-apostles: Mary Magdalene (1st century) Photine, the Samaritan woman at the well (1st century) Thekla (1st century) Saint Apphia (1st century) Abercius of Hieropolis (2nd century) Helena of Constantinople (c. 250 – c. 330) Constantine the Great (c. 272 – 337) Nino (c. 296 – c. 338 or 340), baptizer of the Georgians Mirian III of Iberia (died 361), first Christian Georgian monarch Nana of Iberia (4th century) Patrick of Ireland (5th century) Photios I of Constantinople () Cyril (827 – 869) Rastislav of Moravia (870) Methodius (815 – 885) Saint Angelar (died after 885 AD) Saint Gorazd (9th century) Boris I of Bulgaria (died 907) Saint Naum (died 910) Clement of Ohrid (died 916) Saint Sava (1169 or 1174 – 1236) Olga of Kiev (c. 890 – 969) Vladimir the Great (c. 958 – 1015) Saint Olaf of Norway (c. 995 – 1030), baptiser of Norway Stephen I of Hungary (969 – 1038) Cosmas of Aetolia (1714 – 1779) Innocent of Alaska (1797 – 1879) Nicholas of Japan (1836 – 1912) Other usages of the term Political As George Ostrogorsky relates, the insistence of pre-Christian Roman emperors on being worshipped as gods had always been a fundamental stumbling block for early Christians (see Anti-Christian policies in the Roman Empire). Nevertheless, even with the advent of Christian emperors, of which Constantine the Great was the first, the sovereign's power maintained a distinctly divine flavour. Indeed, to use Ostrogorsky's more strongly worded phrasing, "the Roman-Hellenistic cult of the sovereign lived on in the Christian Byzantine empire in all its ancient glory." The Greek term for "Equal-to-the-Apostles", isapóstolos, was used in the late Roman/Byzantine empire to contribute to this divine imperial image. Constantine himself seems to have had this in mind when, according to Eusebius of Caesarea, he designed the Church of the Holy Apostles to be his tomb in Constantinople: Symbolism aside, modern scholars offer differing accounts as to whether Eusebius ever used the actual title of isapóstolos in