Penitent thief
Christian saint; thief pardoned by Jesus on the cross in Luke 23:39-43
The penitent thief, also known as the good thief, wise thief, grateful thief, or thief on the cross, is one of two unnamed thieves in Luke the Evangelist's account of the crucifixion of Jesus in the New Testament. The Gospel of Luke describes him asking Jesus to "remember him" when Jesus comes into his kingdom. The other, as the impenitent thief, challenges Jesus to save himself and both of them to prove that he is the Messiah.
Later Christian tradition named him Dismas, and he is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church, Catholic Church and Oriental Orthodox Church. The Roman Martyrology places his commemoration on 25 March, together with the Feast of the Annunciation, because of the ancient Christian tradition that Christ (and the penitent thief) were crucified and died exactly on the anniversary of Christ's incarnation.
Name
The penitent thief is unnamed in the canonical gospels. The name Dismas was assigned later, in an early Greek recension of the Acta Pilati and the Latin Gospel of Nicodemus, portions of which may date to the late fourth century; it may derive from a Greek word meaning "dying". He is traditionally known in Catholicism as Saint Dismas (sometimes Dysmas; in Spanish and Portuguese, Dimas), while the other thief is named Gestas. Other traditions give other names:
In Coptic Orthodox tradition and the Narrative of Joseph of Arimathea, he is named Demas.
In the Codex Colbertinus, he is named Zoatham or Zoathan.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q355121. VIAF identifies the subject as 5755058. The Library of Congress control number is nr91025514. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Penitent thief” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.