St. James the Persian, Martyr

Today the Church honors St. James the Persian (the Sawn-Asunder), martyr.

Ora pro nobis.

St. James was born in the fourth century AD in ancient Persia into a pious Christian family, both wealthy and illustrious. His wife was also a Christian, and the couple raised their children in piety, inspiring in them a love for prayer and the Holy Scriptures. James occupied a high position at the court of the Persian emperor Izdegerd (AD 399-420) and his successor Barakhranes (AD 420-438). But on one of the military campaigns James, seduced by the emperor’s beneficence, was afraid to acknowledge himself a Christian, and so he offered sacrifice to idols with the emperor.

Learning of this, James’ mother and wife wrote him a letter, in which they rebuked him and urged him to repent. Receiving the letter, James realized the gravity of his sin. Faced with the horror of being cut off not only from his family, but also from God Himself, he began to weep loudly, imploring the Lord for forgiveness.

His fellow-soldiers, hearing him pray to the Lord Jesus Christ, reported this to the emperor. Under interrogation, Saint James bravely confessed his faith in the one True God. No amount of urging by the emperor could make him renounce Christ. The emperor then ordered the saint to be put to death.

They began to cut off his fingers and his toes one by one, then his hands and his feet, and then his arms and legs. During the prolonged torture Saint James offered prayers of thanksgiving to the Lord, Who had granted him the possibility of redemption from his sins by enduring these terrible torments. Finally, the martyr was beheaded. Christians gathered up the pieces of his body and buried them with great reverence. He was killed in Beth Lapat (Gundishapur).

His death, along with the persecution of other Christians in the Sasanid Empire, started the Roman-Sassanid War (AD 421-422).

Almighty God, by whose grace and power your holy martyr James  triumphed over suffering and was faithful even to death: Grant us, who now remember him in thanksgiving, to be so faithful in our witness to you in this world, that we may receive with him the crown of life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. 

Amen.

Sermon - Christ the King

Fr. Troy Beecham

Sermon, Proper 29 A, 2023

The Last Sunday after Pentecost, often called the Feast of Christ the King

 

Matthew 25:31-46

“Jesus said, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my brothers, you did it to me.’ Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into everlasting life.”

 

The Gospel reading for this last Sunday after Pentecost, also known as the Feast of Christ the King, is often called the ‘parable of the sheep and the goats’. But there’s a problem with calling it that because it isn’t actually a parable. Jesus always introduces His parables by saying something like ‘the kingdom of heaven is like this’, which this Gospel reading does not have. Moreover, this Gospel reading is not even primarily about the sheep and goats. It is primarily about Jesus declaring His authority as the Judge of all peoples at the end of the ages. I have heard sermon after sermon focusing on the sheep and goats, which almost always end up saying that salvation, being a sheep, is to be had by being occasionally nice to strangers. Put another way, how can we feel good about ourselves by doing sporadic good works. In do so, what we are really doing is trying to figure out how to get away from the wonderful, yet awful, majesty of the One who will be our Judge because we feel unclear whether or not we are a sheep or a goat. By focusing on the sheep and goats, on ourselves, we are entirely missing the point of what Jesus is saying. So, if it is not any of these things, what is Jesus saying to us in this narrative?

To begin with, we must look at the larger context of the readings from the Gospel according to St. Matthew that we have been reading for the last several weeks. Beginning in chapter 24, we find Jesus and his disciples at the Temple in Jerusalem, just days from His arrest, trial, crucifixion, and resurrection. Jesus tells his disciples to look at the splendor of the Temple, and it was splendorous…one of the ancient 7 wonders of the world. He shocks them when He tells them that the Temple will soon be destroyed (which it was, in AD 70, when the Roman empire destroyed Jerusalem, killing an estimated one million Jews, and sold many tens of thousands into slavery, and renaming the region Syria Palaestina to try and erase Israel and the Jews from history, something we are still dealing with today), and after that, at a time that only the Father knows, the end of time and the dawning of the Kingdom of God will come. The disciples are astonished, dumbfounded, and ask Jesus what will the coming of the Kingdom of God look like, and what will be the signs of it nearing. As you will recall, for the last several weeks Jesus has been teaching us that very thing. He has told us that the coming of that great day will be sudden and unexpected, and so we must remain vigilant and faithful. He has given us the parables about the faithful and wicked servants, the wise and foolish virgins, and the bags of gold to illustrate the urgency of remaining awake and vigilant. And it is urgent because there will be a Day of Judgment, and all the peoples of the earth will be judged. In the face of the coming of that day, how will He judge the world?

Here we see Jesus as King, judging the peoples of the world. We read of sheep and goats, people being divided to the left and right, some going to everlasting life and others to everlasting punishment. We are unused to such stark words from Jesus, at least in the last century or so here in the West. Earlier generations were habituated to the concept of judgment, reward, and damnation, but we have largely moved away from such ideas in Western religious culture. Over the last few decades, we have become more habituated to the gentle shepherd Jesus, buddy Jesus, anti-capitalist Jesus, socialist Jesus…all kinds of new ways of thinking about Jesus, all of them very human, and none of them recognizing him as the incarnate Son of God to whom the Father has given all authority and judgment, and who will one day judge all the peoples of the world. This Sunday is a sobering reminder that Jesus is the Son of God, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, and He will Judge of all humankind, some going to everlasting life and others to everlasting punishment.

So, we have to look at this narrative with fresh eyes. We have become used to hearing the focus being on the sheep and the goats, on us, and how our behavior determines which of the two we will be when we stand before the Lord, hearing sermons say something like this: the ‘least of these’ are the poor, the rejected, the persecuted, in sick, and the prisoners of the world, and the sheep are those who care for the them. Salvation is understood in this way as being someone who does a bit of good works for the suffering people of the world. There is no need here of being baptized, of partaking of His Body and Blood, of obeying the commands of Jesus, of loving each other as He loves us, of taking up our cross to follow Him, of worshipping God with all that we are, and of living under the righteous rule of our king, Jesus.  The goats, then, are those who neglect caring for the suffering people of the world, rather than those who reject the call of Jesus to become His disciples, forsaking all, taking up their cross and following him. Do not misunderstand me; caring for the suffering people of the world is theologically important and entirely commendable, but this Gospel narrative is not about that. There is an important phrase that often gets either left out or is misunderstood in this reading that is central to understanding what Jesus us saying, and that phrase is “the least of these my brothers”.

Jesus will one day invite those on his right to ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world…’. This judgment will come as a complete surprise to those standing before Him, and He has to explain that ‘Whenever you did this for the least of my brothers…you did it for me’. In the same way, those on his left are also surprised that they have encountered the Jesus in His moment of need and are horrified at being judged to suffer everlasting punishment. If this narrative was Jesus’ way of teaching us about helping the suffering people of the world as the way to gain a favorable judgment, then those who helped or failed to help the suffering, especially we who have been doing it for two millennia, would hardly be surprised to find that they had been doing as the king asked.

But there is nothing in the narrative itself that speaks about entrance into the kingdom of God as a reward based on a life of good works. This is difficult for us to hear. Western Christianity has largely wandered back to the ancient error of thinking that salvation can be earned by anything that we can do or that we fail to do. Salvation is the free gift of God, something that God gives to his children. Rather than proposing a system by which we can merit eternal paradise and escape eternal punishment, this narrative uses the language of family, of inheritance. Language about inheritance echoes God’s promise to the Jewish, to whom God has given the land of Israel as an ‘inheritance’, but not because of they were particularly good or faithful; quite the contrary. They were made inheritors of the promise because God chose them as His people, and they inherit as a son inherits from a father in the ancient world. You don’t need to be ‘good’, you need to be a child of God, chosen by God and adopted by God. The New Testament is replete with this language of adoption by God, and of receiving the inheritance because of God’s gracious generosity now made possible to all peoples through his Son, Jesus, the Son of Man, the Resurrected Savior.

How, then, may we be adopted, how do we become children of God in Jesus? We have culturally fallen prey to the common misunderstanding that we are all brothers and sisters. In His Great Commission to His disciples, Jesus said that all must be baptized to become His disciples. He also said that any who be His disciples must partake of his Body and Blood. Here we find His two Sacraments by which we become one with Him. Many found this teaching too difficult to accept and departed from Him. In the Gospel according to St. Matthew, Jesus also only ever refers to his brothers or sisters as those who do the will of God by becoming his followers, those who will take up the cross and follow him. This is particularly clear in Matthew 12:49, when Jesus astonishes everyone by saying that His family are those disciples who obey his commands and who take up their cross and follow Him, and not simply those related by blood or human community, or even call Him “Lord”. Many had trouble with this and left Jesus, because Jesus is clear that to follow him often means to be rejected by family and society, to become homeless, to experience persecution, and even death. We in the West have come far from having to experience these things as disciples of Jesus, but our Christian sisters and brothers around the world face this on a daily basis. Christians are the single most persecuted religious group in the world. In the last decade Christianity has nearly been eradicated in the lands of its birth in the Middle East and North Africa by Muslim violence. On average so far this year, 15 Christians are martyred for the Faith every day according to credible estimates by international observers.

In very real terms for many, to follow Jesus means they will be like Him, becoming a refugee, expelled from family, jailed, reliant on the charity and provision of others, and face death. With this in mind, the narrative then identifies the ‘least of these’ as not being the poor of the world in general, but is rather a direct reference to being a disciple of Jesus and the consequences of that choice in a world hostile to His Gospel. When read like this, those on the king’s right are people who have aided His persecuted disciples, and in doing so have welcomed Jesus Himself because His disciples have become one body with Him through Holy Baptism, in partaking in His body and blood in the Holy Eucharist, and through faithfulness to His commands. This echoes what St. Paul comes to understand when he hears Jesus say to him as he is on his way to persecute the disciples of Jesus in Damascus: ‘Why do you persecute me?’ To persecute the disciples of Jesus because they are his disciples is to persecute him, and to persecute him is to persecute the one who will sit on the Throne of Judgment at the last day.

The division of the people of the world, then, is not between those who do or do not care for the suffering of the world, but between those who care for the suffering followers of Jesus or don’t, and in so doing show their attitude to the king himself. There is no doubt that this reading of this narrative is challenging, but it does have the virtue of being faithful to the words of Jesus. It may seem odd that those who are already part of His body are not part of this judgment, but this is because their judgment has already been given by their participation in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus through their Holy Baptism, in partaking of His most Holy Body and Blood in the Holy Eucharist, and their faithful submission to Jesus as their King, obeying His commands.

In the end, this narrative is entirely about Jesus, who He is and who He will be: He is the exalted Son of Man, who brings the needs of people of God into the presence of the Father; He is the exalted king who even now sits on the right hand of the throne of God as rightful king; and He is the true Shepherd, through whom the Father exercises His reign and his entrusts His final, just judgement. It is also about who He is in his disciples.

For many of us, to be united with Jesus in the Sacraments and through faithfulness to his commands carries little risk; but for many hundreds of millions of his disciples around the world it entails truly risking being hungry, thirsty, naked, a stranger, sick, in prison, or murdered. This has been true for Christians in many parts of the world in many ears in history. It is perhaps only we who have been free from persecution who have drifted away from understanding Jesus’ intent in this narrative.

We must be careful here to not make the misguided step of setting up our own seats of judgment about who we think will be rewarded or punished. We are not judges! We cannot possibly know who will be judged as blessed or as condemned. We do not know the secrets of people’s hearts, nor do we know all the deeds of a person, and so we judge no one, not even ourselves. Instead, we trust in Jesus, the Son of God who took on our humanity, who suffered at our hands, accepted being an outcast, and was cruelly murdered by us, the very ones He came to save. We trust in Jesus, who destroyed death by accepting his own death, and rose triumphant from the grave. We trust in Jesus because He will judge us all in love. We trust Him because His own prayer is that all people may become one in Him, and therefore become one with the Father just as He and the Father are one. And in that trust, sisters and brothers, we who are His body through Holy Baptism and in partaking in His most holy Body and Blood, His Church, must faithfully engage the world as His disciples, proclaiming the good news of salvation both with the testimony of our lives and with the words of our mouths, making disciples of all peoples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to be faithful to all of His commandments. We must accept the risk, taking up the cross and following Him. We must not fail to offer the good news of His salvation to any person. And He will be with us, through persecution, suffering, and all manner of things, unto the end of the ages.

Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under His most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. 

Amen.

Pope St. Peter I of Alexandria

Today the Church honors Pope St. Peter I of Alexandria, Martyr.

Ora pro nobis.

St. Peter was born and raised at Alexandria. He was a highly educated man, and was eventually the head of the famed Catechetical School of Alexandria. In the year AD 300,  he became the 17th Pope of the Alexandrian Church, succeeding his teacher and spiritual guide, the holy Pope Theonas.

Forced into exile from the city during the anti-Christian persecutions under the emperors Diocletian and Maximian, Saint Peter traveled through many lands, encouraging his flock by letter. St. Peter returned to his city, in order to guide the Alexandrian Church personally during this dangerous period. The saint secretly visited Christians locked up in prison, encouraging them to be steadfast in faith, assisting the widows and orphans, preaching the Word of God, constantly praying and officiating at the divine services. And the Lord kept him safe from the hands of the persecutors.

During this time of unrest, the heretic Arius, who denied the divinity of Jesus Christ,  began to spread his false teaching. When Arius refused to be corrected and submit to the truth, Saint Peter anathematized the heretic and excommunicated him from the Church. Arius then sent two of Saint Peter’s priests to beg the saint to lift the excommunication from him, pretending that he had repented and given up his false teachings. This was not true, for Arius hoped to succeed Saint Peter as Archbishop of Alexandria. Saint Peter, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, saw through the deceit of Arius, and so he instructed his flock not to believe Arius nor to accept him into communion.

Under the wise nurturing of Saint Peter the Church of Alexandria strengthened and grew in spite of the persecutions. But finally, on orders from the emperor Maximian (AD 305-311), the saint was arrested and sentenced to death. A multitude of people gathered at the entrance of the prison, expressing their outrage. Wanting to avoid bloodshed and a riot by the people, the saint sent a message to the authorities, in which he suggested that they make an opening in the back wall of the prison, so that he might be taken away secretly to execution.

In the dark of the night Saint Peter went with the executioners, who took him beyond the city walls and beheaded him at the same spot where formerly Saint Mark had been executed. This took place in the year AD 311. In the morning, when people learned of the death of their beloved Pope, a crowd gathered at the place of execution. They took up the body and head of the martyr and went to the church, dressing him in his bishop’s vestments, and laid his body to rest. 

Saint Peter, a great champion of Orthodoxy, is known also as a profound theologian. Passages from his book, “On the Divinity (of Jesus Christ)”, were consulted at the Councils of Ephesus (AD 431) and Chalcedon (AD 451). Of all his works, the most widely known and highly esteemed by the Church are his “Penitential Canons”.

Almighty God, by whose grace and power your holy martyr Peter triumphed over suffering and was faithful even to death: Grant us, who now remember him in thanksgiving, to be so faithful in our witness to you in this world, that we may receive with him the crown of life; and may your Church always have faithful and wise pastors to guide it in the true Faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. 

Amen.

St. Clement I of Rome

Today the Church honors Pope St. Clement I of Rome.

Ora pro nobis.

Pope Clement I, also known as Saint Clement of Rome, is counted as one of the  Apostolic Fathers of the Church, along with St. Polycarp and St. Ignatius of Antioch. Few details are known with certainty about Clement's life. 

Tradition says that when he was still a young man from a wealthy family, the news of Jesus and His teaching began to reach the capital, Rome. Clement left his home and estate and went to the lands where the Apostles were preaching. At Alexandria, Clement met the holy Apostle Barnabas, listening to his words with deep attention, and perceiving the power and truth of the Word of God. Seeking deeper knowledge, he traveled then to Israel, where he met and was baptized by the holy Apostle Peter and became his zealous disciple and constant companion, sharing his toil and sufferings with him. 

Shortly before his own sufferings and death, Saint Peter consecrated Saint Clement as Bishop of Rome. After the death of the Apostle Peter, Saint Linus (AD 67-79) was the next Bishop of Rome, succeeded by Saint Anacletus/Cletus (AD 79-91), and then Saint Clement (AD 88-c. 99). Early church lists place him as the second or third bishop of Rome. The Roman Catholic Church lists him as the fourth pope. In one of his works, Jerome listed Clement as "the fourth bishop of Rome after Peter, if indeed the second was Linus and the third Anacletus, although most of the Latins think that Clement was second after the apostle." Clement is put after Linus and Cletus/Anacletus in the earliest (c. AD 180) account, that of St. Irenaeus, who is followed by St. Eusebius of Caesarea. 

The Liber Pontificalis presents a list that makes Linus the second in the line of bishops of Rome, with Peter as first; but at the same time it states that Peter ordained two bishops, Linus and Anacletus, for the priestly service of the community, devoting himself instead to prayer and preaching, and that it was to Clement that he entrusted the Church as a whole, appointing him as his successor. Tertullian considered Clement to be the immediate successor of Peter. St. Eusebius, in his book Church History, mentions Clement as the third bishop of Rome and the "co-laborer" of Paul. 

Clement’s inclusion in these lists has been very controversial among scholars. Many scholars point out that there were priest-bishops as early as the 1st century AD, but there is no evidence for a monarchical episcopacy in Rome or anywhere else, such as we have now, at such an early date. It is, however, probable that the Church at Rome had at first two apostolic successions, one Petrine and the other Pauline, but that they speedily merged into one; and this will account for the confusion in the lists of the first bishops of Rome. This has led to speculation that, given the overlapping dates of Linus, Anacletus, and Clement, perhaps St. Peter appointed Clement as overseer (bishop) of the Jewish Christians of Rome and St. Paul appointed Linus and then Anacletus as overseer of the Gentiles Christians of Rome. 

The virtuous life, charitable works and prayerful activity of Saint Clement converted many to the Faith. He once baptized 424 people on the day of Pascha (Easter). Among the baptized were people of all social classes: slaves, officials, and even members of the imperial family. 

Clement's only genuine extant writing is his letter to the church at Corinth (1 Clement) in response to a dispute in which certain presbyters of the Corinthian church had been deposed. He asserted the authority of the presbyters as rulers of the church on the ground that the Apostles had appointed such. His letter, which is one of the oldest extant Christian documents outside the New Testament, was read in church, along with other epistles, some of which later became part of the Christian canon. These works were the first to affirm the apostolic authority of the clergy. A second epistle, 2 Clement, was attributed to Clement, although recent scholarship suggests it to be a homily by another author. In the legendary Clementine Literature, Clement is the intermediary through whom the apostles teach the church. 

According to tradition, Clement was banished and imprisoned under the Emperor Trajan and was set to work in a stone quarry. Finding on his arrival that the prisoners were suffering from lack of water, he knelt down in prayer. Looking up, he saw a lamb on a hill, went to where the lamb had stood and struck the ground with his pickaxe, releasing a gushing stream of clear water. This miracle resulted in the conversion of large numbers of the local pagans and his fellow prisoners to Christianity. As punishment, Saint Clement was martyred by being tied to an anchor and thrown from a boat into the Black Sea.

Almighty God, you chose your servant Clement of Rome to recall the Church in Corinth to obedience and stability: Grant that your Church may be grounded and settled in your truth by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit; reveal to it what is not yet known; fill up what is lacking; confirm what has already been revealed; and keep it blameless in your service; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. 

Amen.

Sts. Philemon, Apphia, and Archippus, Martyrs

Today the Church honors Sts. Philemon, Apphia, and Archippus, Martyrs.

Orate pro nobis.

Philemon and his wife Apphia lived in the city of Colossae in Phrygia, Asia Minor. When St. Paul came to Colossae to preach the Gospel of Jesus, Philemon and Apphia became disciples of the Lord. After they were baptized by the holy Apostle Paul, they converted their house into a house of prayer, one of the first churches, where all those who believed in Christ gathered to learn the truths of the Faith, for prayer and to worship God, and to receive the Sacraments. They were noted for having devoted themselves to serving the sick and outcast.

Saint Philemon preached the Word of God throughout Phrygia. The holy Apostle Paul continued to be his guide, and addressed to him his Epistle filled with love, and in which he sends blessings “to Philemon our dearly beloved, and fellow laborer, and to our beloved Apphia, and to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in thy house” (Phil 1:1-3).

Saint Onesimus, also mentioned in the Epistle, was Saint Philemon’s former slave, whom he freed after his conversion.

Saints Philemon and Apphia, and also Saint Archippus (who also lived at Colossae), were all martyred for the Faith during the persecution of Nero (AD 54-68), the same persecution during which Sts. Paul and Peter were martyred. 

These are the details. During a pagan festival, an enraged crowd rushed into the Christian church in their home while the holy liturgy was being celebrated. All fled in terror, and only Saints Philemon, Apphia, and Archippus remained. They were seized by the mob and led them off to the city prefect. The crowd beat and stabbed Saint Archippus with knives, and he died on the way to the court. Saints Philemon and Apphia were stoned to death by order of the prefect in AD 68. 

Almighty God, by whose grace and power your holy martyrs Philemon, Apphia, and Archippus triumphed over suffering and were faithful even to death: Grant us, who now remember them in thanksgiving, to be so faithful in our witness to you in this world, that we may receive with them the crown of life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. 

Amen.

St. Dasius of Durostorum, Martyr

Today the Church honors St. Dasius of Durostorum, Martyr.

Ora pro nobis.

Dasius is a Christian martyr of the early 4th century AD. He was a Roman soldier of Legio XI Claudiana at Durostorum on the Danube River (modern Silistra), Moesia Inferior. Dasius was the first of twelve martyrs executed at Durostorum during the fourth Diocletian edict of persecution of Christians in AD 304.

The inhabitants of Durostrum were preparing for the annual Saturnalia festival. In Roman mythology, Saturn was an agricultural deity who was said to have reigned over the world in a Golden Age, when humans enjoyed the spontaneous bounty of the earth without labour in a state of innocence. The revelries of Saturnalia were supposed to reflect the conditions of the lost mythical age.

The holiday was celebrated with a sacrifice at the Temple of Saturn and a public banquet, followed by private gift-giving, continual partying, and a carnival atmosphere that overturned Roman social norms: gambling was permitted, and masters provided table service for their slaves as it was seen as a time of liberty for both slaves and freedmen alike. To conclude the festival, sources of the third century AD and later, Saturn is recorded as receiving dead gladiators as offerings (munera) during or near the Saturnalia. These gladiatorial events, ten days in all throughout December, were presented mainly by the quaestors and sponsored with funds from the treasury of Saturn. The practice of gladiator munera was criticized by Christian apologists as a form of human sacrifice.

In this context, we have the story of Dasius. The choice of his compatriots fell upon Saint Dasius, since in the city there was not a more handsome youth. Learning of this, the saint said, "If I am fated to die, then it’s better to die for Christ as a Christian." He openly confessed his faith in Christ before his fellow citizens and refused to take part in the shameful ritual. He denounced the impiety and error of the idolaters, and in so doing converted many of them to Christ. Therefore, on the orders of the emperors Diocletian (AD 284-305) and Maximian (AD 305-311), he was beheaded after cruel tortures.

Almighty God, who gave to your servant Dasius boldness to confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for this faith: Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us, and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.

Amen.

St. Hypatius, Bishop and Martyr

Today the Church honors St. Hypatius, Bishop and martyr.

Ora pro nobis.

We do not much information about his early life. We do know that he was bishop of the city of Gangra in Paphlagonia (Asia Minor). In the year AD 325, he participated in the First Ecumenical Council at Nicea, at which the heresy of Arius (the teaching that Jesus was a created being, not an eternal like the Father, and was therefore of similar being, “homoi”-similar, and “ousia”-being, rather than of the same being, “homo”-same, “ousia”- being) was anathematized. Nicene Orthodoxy chose the teaching of St. Athanasius that Jesus was “homoousia” with the Father and the Holy Spirit, which remains the Nicene orthodox teaching of the Church.

When Saint Hypatius was returning in AD 326 from Constantinople to Gangra, followers of the schismatics Novatus and Felicissimus, ardent supporters of Arius, fell upon him in a desolate place. The heretics ran him through with swords and spears, and threw him into a swamp. Like the Protomartyr Stephen, Saint Hypatius prayed for his murderers.

One of them, a woman, struck the saint on the head with a stone, killing him. The murderers hid his body in a cave, where a Christian who kept straw there found his body. Recognizing the bishop’s body, he hastened to the city to report this, and the inhabitants of Gangra piously buried their beloved archpastor.

After his death, the relics of Saint Hypatius were famous for numerous miracles, particularly for casting out demons and for healing the sick.

Almighty God, you gave to your servant Hypatius special gifts of grace to be a faithful bishop who holds to the unchanging True Faith, to understand and teach the truth as it is in Christ Jesus: Grant that by this teaching we may know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. 

Amen.