Easter's 'good thief' has small but loyal following

By Daniel Burke

Religion News Service

A painting by Paul Gustave Dore depicts the Crucifixion. St. Dismas, the ``Good Thief,'' is traditionally depicted on Jesus' right, while Gestas, the unrepentant thief, is traditionally depicted on his left.

RNS photo

When Deacon Ken Finn is counseling prisoners, he often tells the story of St. Dismas.

"He was the guy crucified on the right side of Christ," Finn says. "He never took a course in (Catholic doctrine) but he gets to skip purgatory and go straight to heaven."

Finn, 72, heads the St. Dismas Guild, a prison ministry based in Escondido, Calif. During his more than 20 years counseling the incarcerated, Finn says he's fielded innumerable requests for devotional pictures, prayers and medals of Dismas. As patron saint of repentant criminals, the "good thief" offers hope to the woebegone, Finn says.

"They're really attracted to someone saying 'This was a condemned man, a prisoner, and he became a saint,'" he says.

Little is known about Dismas, whose feast day is March 25. He's not named in the Bible and speaks but a few lines. However, his deathbed profession of faith, and Jesus' ensuing promise of paradise, can offer a critical foothold for Christians struggling with faith and redemption, say Finn and other clergy and spiritual counselors.

Numerous halfway houses for prisoners bearing Dismas' name are sprinkled across the country. The Greek Orthodox Church has placed his words at the center of prayers and hymns. A popular chant used in Taize services invokes Dismas' plea, "Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom." Dismas' visage stares out from Russian Orthodox icons and tradition holds that the slanted bar on the Orthodox cross represents the ultimate destiny of the two criminals crucified with Jesus. Dismas' side points up toward heaven, the other tilts toward hell.

The gospels of Matthew and Mark call the men "thieves," who both mock Jesus on Good Friday. "If you're the messiah, why can't you save yourself?" they taunt.

But Luke's Gospel offers another account. One of the criminals, according to Luke, rebukes the other, saying "Don't you fear God? ...We are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong." Then he asks Jesus to "remember me when you come into your kingdom."

"I assure you: Today you will be with me in paradise," Jesus answers. New Testament scholar Darrell Bock says that's the only time Jesus offers paradise in Luke's Gospel, though the apostles are told they will have eternal life.

"He's known as one of the few figures, who, in the midst of the Crucifixion, knows what's going on," said Bock, a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary in Texas.

Crucifixion is too harsh a crime for thievery, Bock says, so the men were probably insurgents or revolutionaries of some kind.