Tag: May 1

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Synaxis of the Three Holy New Martyrs Euthymios, Ignatios, & Akakios (May 1)

A Slavonic icon of the Holy New Martyrs Euthymios, Ignatios, and Akakios.

Rejoice, my Euthymios, rejoice many times over;
For, having been slain, thou hast found the joy on high with a willing heart.

I behold Ignatios as another star,
Shining from the earth unto the heavens by the way of the noose.

Alas! by the sword, men of blood slaughter
The illustrious Akakios, like unto a lamb.

All three were monks on Mt Athos. All three had renounced Christ in their youth and embraced Islam, but had repented and pursued the Christian life with fervor. All three, at different times, returned to Constantinople and declared themselves Christians, dooming themselves to death under Islamic law. Akakios’ poor and pious mother told him, ‘As you voluntarily denied the Lord, so you must now voluntarily and courageously receive martyrdom for our sweet Jesus.’ All three were beheaded in Constantinople. The holy relics of all three are kept at the Skete of Iveron of the Venerable Forerunner on the Holy Mountain, where they had been monks.

Apolytikion (Troparion) — Tone 1

Being equal in number to the uncreated Trinity, O ye wise ones, ye stand rejoicing before the throne of the Godhead with the choirs of angels and the ranks of martyrs. Wherefore, partaking of the divine effulgence which ye receive therefrom, ye provide fountains of healing and divine enlightenment for the faithful, O martyr of Christ, Euthymios, together with the wise Ignatios and the divine Akakios, ever interceding on our behalf.

Kontakion — Tone 4

(To the melody “Thou didst appear today…”)

Today there hath appeared to the Church a new festival of the three prize-bearers, which, like a radiant beacon, doth illumine the multitudes of the Orthodox, O Christ.

Megalynarion

Let us all hymn the Venerable-Martyrs of Christ, Euthymios and the renowned Ignatios, together with Akakios, crying out: Rejoice, ye new bulwarks of the Church.

Witness the Power of Repentance: The Three New Martyrs of Athos

The account above is a summary of a journey almost too powerful for words. Our exclusive ebook features the first full English translation of the soul-moving lives of Saints Euthymios, Ignatios, and Akakios—three Athonite monks who washed away the stain of apostasy with their own blood.

  • First English Translation: Translated from the rare 1862 manuscript by Onouphrios of Iveron Monastery.
  • New True Orthodox Akathist Hymn: An original composition by our monastery for prayer and veneration.
  • Detailed & Illustrated: A 69-page PDF with historical graphics and a reflowable EPUB for all e-readers.

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Saint Philosophos of Alexandria (May 1)

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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