The Holy Martyr Philosophos, Perfected by the Sword (+ 252)1
Commemorated on the First of May
O Philosophos, blessed in name and in deed,
Thou hast truly proven thyself a friend of wisdom.
This great martyr of Christ, Philosophos, was from the region of Alexandria, as was related concerning him by Anthony the Great among ascetics. He completed his martyrdom in the following way.
There was in Alexandria a most beautiful garden, full of delight and sensory charm. Into this garden the tyrant of that time commanded that an adorned couch be placed. Upon it, they laid this holy Philosophos on his back, and bound his hands and feet. Then they brought in a prostitute, who went to the saint. Not only did she attempt to incite the saint to a shameful act with indecent words, but she also embraced him with her defiled hands, and kissed him, and shamelessly touched him.
But the most noble combatant of the Lord, though he was bound, still found a way and a means to save himself from the snares of the prostitute. For first, he closed his eyes so that he would not see her. Then, he bit down upon his tongue with his teeth, and with the unbearable pain he experienced from biting his tongue, he caused the other senses of his body to remain insensible to pleasure. Then, filling his mouth with blood, he spat it upon the face and the garments of the unclean and defiled prostitute, who, seeing the blood flowing like a river, became frightened and drew back.
Having struggled in this manner, the one of great soul was not vanquished, but was victorious; he was preserved passionless by the grace of Christ. For this, he was later beheaded and departed as a crown-bearer to the heavens, where he rejoices with a joy that is eternal and ineffable.2
Footnotes
1 This Life is translated from The Synaxaristes of the Twelve Months of the Year, 3rd Edition, Athens, 1868.
2 The 1868 Synaxaristes includes the following editor’s note for its entry on St. Philosophos: This narrative is also found in the manuscript of the Paradise of the Fathers. In the Synaxaristes of the holy monastery of Dionysiou, the new Coenobium on Mount Athos, this Philosophos is named Justin. The words of Chrysostom, with which he praises the true philosopher, are fitting for this Philosophos: “For what,” he says, “is proper to a philosopher? Is it not to look down on money and glory, and to be superior to envy and every passion? … Such is the philosopher, such is his wealth: he has nothing, and yet he has all things; he has all things, and yet he has nothing.” (Homily 21 on the Epistle to the Ephesians). And Gregory the Theologian also said: “There is a plant in fable that flourishes when it is cut and strives against the blade; and, if one may speak paradoxically of a paradoxical thing, it lives by death, grows by being cut, and increases by being consumed. These things belong to myth and the autonomy of fiction; but to me, it seems the philosopher is clearly such a thing: he thrives in his sufferings, makes his afflictions the material of virtue, and is adorned by their opposites, neither being lifted up by the ‘weapons of righteousness on the right hand’, nor being bent by those ‘on the left’ (cf. 2 Corinthians 6:7), but remains the same man, though not always in the same circumstances; or rather, he is found to be even more proven, like gold in a furnace.” (Oration upon his return from the country). The martyr of Christ Niketas, who suffered under Decius, performed a similar deed. For he too was placed and bound upon a couch and was incited to carnal desire by a prostitute. Therefore, to escape the pleasure, he severed his tongue with his teeth and spat it in the prostitute’s face, as is recounted by Nikephoros [the 14th-century Church historian]. And thus he was victorious, the one who was truly true to his name (“Niketas” derives from nikē, the Greek word for “victory”). See also the eighth chapter of the Politikon Theatron (a 17th-century Greek moral anthology).
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