Feast Day : March 25

Patronage: death row inmates; funeral directors; prisoners; therapists; undertakers

The Gospel of Infancy, an Arabic text of dubious reliability, tells how Dismas and the other crucified thief, Gestas, actually encountered the Holy Family when they fled to Egypt, and robbed them. Dismas supposedly saved the family from Gestas. The Gospels do not name the thieves, but Matthew and Mark tell of one of them reviling Jesus on the cross. Luke 23: 39–43 tells of one reviling Jesus and being rebuked by the second thief, who said, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” The robber asked Jesus to remember him when Jesus came into his kingdom, and Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”