The Name and the Sources
The penitent thief is left unnamed in the canonical Gospels. The name 'Dismas' first appears in an early Greek recension of the Acta Pilati and in the Latin Gospel of Nicodemus, portions of which may date to the late fourth century; the name has been connected to a Greek word meaning 'dying.' Other traditions preserve different names for him: Coptic sources call him Demas, the Codex Colbertinus names him Zoatham or Zoathan, the Arabic Infancy Gospel identifies him as Titus, and Russian Orthodox tradition calls him Rakh.
The Gospel accounts differ in detail. Luke distinguishes the two criminals, one mocking and one repentant, while Matthew and Mark report that both initially reviled Jesus, a difference that has prompted longstanding discussion about how the accounts are to be harmonized.
Traditional Accounts
A number of legendary traditions attach to the Good Thief beyond the Gospel narrative. In the Arabic Infancy Gospel, the penitent thief, there named Titus, is said to have prevented his companions from robbing Mary and Joseph during the Holy Family's flight into Egypt. The 1868 French devotional Histoire du Bon Larron (Life of the Good Thief) recounts a legendary childhood encounter in which the thief addressed the child Jesus and asked for mercy 'if ever a time should come when I shall crave Thy Mercy.'
A Homily on the Crucifixion and the Good Thief is traditionally attributed to Theophilus of Alexandria (385-412) and survives in Sahidic Coptic, though scholars regard it as pseudonymous.
Liturgical Commemoration
In the Eastern Orthodox Church the Good Thief is commemorated on Great and Holy Friday, the primary observance of Christ's Crucifixion; there is no separate fixed-date entry for him in the Orthodox calendar, and his veneration is bound to the movable feast of Holy Week. The OCA Synaxarion places the commemoration of the two thieves within the passion narrative of the day, treating the passion of Christ as the principal liturgical event.
The Orthodox Synaxarion honors him with the couplet: 'Eden's locked gates the Thief has opened wide, / By putting in the key, "Remember me."' A Good Friday hymn celebrating how Christ granted Dismas Paradise is known in Church Slavonic as Razboinika blagorazumnago ('The Good Thief'), and several compositions on the theme are sung at Russian Orthodox Matins on Good Friday. According to the scholar Robert Taft, the Good Friday troparion associated with the thief was inserted into the Holy Thursday liturgy in Constantinople in the late sixth century.
In the Western Church his feast is kept on 25 March, coinciding with the Feast of the Annunciation, following the tradition that the Crucifixion fell on the anniversary of the Incarnation; Polish tradition observes it on 26 March.
Legacy
Augustine of Hippo appealed to the thief's salvation, granted without water baptism, to distinguish 'the sacrament of baptism' from 'the conversion of the heart,' arguing that sincere repentance could suffice where baptism was impossible. Thomas Aquinas emphasized that the thief represents the only person confirmed as a saint by the Bible and by Jesus Himself.
His confession is echoed in the Eastern Orthodox pre-Communion prayer: 'I will not speak of Thy Mystery to Thine enemies... but like the thief will I confess Thee: Remember me, O Lord, in Thy Kingdom.' Places bearing his name include San Dimas in Mexico and San Dimas in California, and he is also invoked as patron of Merizo in Guam.
