To the Evangelists who wrote the first three gospels he is a nameless person, this young patriot sharing the agony of Jesus' last earthly hours. (Matthew 27:38; Mark 15:27; Luke 23:32) Tradition treats him more kindly. It dignifies him with a name. "Dysmas," it whispers.

Nor does tradition stop there. Instead, it presses on to portray Dysmas as a man of great compassion, deeply concerned for the distressed and the downtrodden, who "despised the rich, but did not give to the poor, even burying them" -- no common mercy for the times.

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A robber in the eyes of Rome, Dysmas was actually a revolutionary -- a freedom fighter, if you will -- striking blows for liberty wherever and whenever he could against an invader's occupying legions. Here was no midnight prowler sneaking into the homes of …