Saint ’Iliyân of Homs
Today in the Holy Orthodox Church we venerate Mâr ’Iliyân, a third-century martyr for Christ who died under the persecution of Roman Emperor Maximian. Mâr ’Iliyân was a Phœnician, and a native of the city of Emesa – modern-day Homs.
’Iliyân [also Julian, Elian or Ellien] was born to pagan parents. Emesa was at that time a centre of pagan worship on account of the Temple of El-Gabal which stood in the Citadel. Christianity was not a noteworthy presence there, which makes Saint ’Iliyân’s conversion the more notable. Even so, when he converted to Christendom, he sought out the best way of using the talents given to him for the glory of God. ’Iliyân took up the study of medicine, and became a physician:
Having set his hopes in Jesus Christ, he was not tempted by the glory of this ephemeral world. He prayed day and night, practiced fasting, visited prisoners and comforted them. He gave out large alms of what remained in excess in his father’s house. Ellien studied and practiced medicine skillfully. He strived to cure the diseases of both the body and soul. He cured sick people by Christ’s grace and the faith of the Apostles, while preaching God’s Word and urging them to follow the path of virtue. ‘It is not’, he says, ‘with medicines that you will be cured of your illness nor thanks to your idols which drive to perdition all those who kneel before them, but by the power of Jesus Christ’s name who has been crucified by the Jews under Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem, who has been buried and resuscitated on the third day.’Saint ’Iliyân was notably not motivated by monetary gain. He is commemorated among the Anárguroi or Unmercenaries, saints – mostly healers and physicians – who refused to accept money for doing good works. In contradistinction to the medical practice of the day (and, for that matter, medical practice now), the Anárguroi would not turn away anyone who couldn’t pay for healing and medical care – or who had a ‘præ-existing condition’! – and they looked after the sick free of charge. As mentioned above, Saint ’Iliyân used his intelligence and skill to heal the bodies of the ill, and also proclaimed the Gospel of Christ through his actions and his way of life. If he lived in modern-day America, I’m sure Saint ’Iliyân would be condemned as a dangerous radical – as in early fourth-century Rome under the persecutions of Maximian he actually was.
The pagan doctors of Emesa grew both jealous of his skill and afraid of the popularity of his cures which were given out gratis. They first complained of him to his father, who was a Roman magistrate in Emesa. His father threatened him and appealed to his self-preservation in an attempt to get him to give up his medical practice, and also to stop preaching Christ. Saint ’Iliyân would do neither. He feared no earthly judge, not even his father, but instead only the heavenly Judge who would judge according to how he had used his talents and how he had treated the least of his brothers. As he continued his practice of healing and preaching the Gospel, his enemies went over his father’s head and appealed to the Roman governor of Emesa. The governor had Saint ’Iliyân thrown into prison alongside Bishop Silas, Deacon Luke and Reader Mocius.
Saint ’Iliyân, feeling himself unworthy of their company and yet overjoyed of it, prostrated himself at the feet of his fellow Syrian martyrs, and kissed the iron shackles which bound them. Saints Silas, Luke and Mocius were put to death in the arena soon thereafter, to be mauled by wild beasts. Saint ’Iliyân, left alone in the cell, prayed to God for courage, and he was sent a messenger who strengthened his spirit and prepared him for his own martyrdom.
Many grievous tortures were visited on Saint ’Iliyân, and yet he did not renounce his faith. All the time he continued to confess Christ who had died and was risen. Indeed, even after being tortured, he still went to his fellow-prisoners and healed their wounds and illnesses, refusing to cease his calling even as near as he was to his own end, which came on the sixth of February, 312 – though some authorities say 284. Saint ’Iliyân’s own father had him executed, by driving twelve long nails through his head on the killing ground. He was left for dead, but he did not die there. He managed to crawl his way into a cave near the Gate of Palmyra which belonged to a Christian potter, who discovered his body there the following day. Waiting for the cover of darkness, the potter had the body conveyed to a church for burial. Saint ’Iliyân was buried on the east side of the altar.
Church of Saint Elian, Homs, Syria
Later he would be honoured with his own church in Homs, which was built over the potter’s cave in the year 432. The relics of Saint ’Iliyân were translated into a marble coffin and interred in a fitting shrine in the church’s crypt. They became the site of many more healings of the sick and distressed; as ’Iliyân had done in life, so he continued to do from his place in the heavenly kingdom. The Church of Saint Elian was deliberately damaged during several persecutions of the Church – under the Sunnî Muslim ‘Abbâsid caliph al-Mutawakkil most notably. At one point, only one small damaged corner of the church still stood, measuring nine by six metres. It was expanded in 1843 thanks to the heroic efforts of Fr Yûsuf (al-Rahabiya), being then too small to accommodate the number of worshippers and pilgrims who came there. Astoundingly, some of the wall and ceiling frescoes survived, having been discovered during a renovation of the church in 1969 under Bishop Alexios of Homs. These frescoes depict episodes from the life of Christ, the Holy Theotokos, the Prophets and the Holy Apostles. Dating back to the 500s AD, these are considered to be some of the oldest surviving examples of Orthodox iconography in Syria.
Interior frescoes, Church of Saint Elian
During the Syrian Civil War, His Holiness Patriarch John X (Yazigi) has officiated at the Divine Liturgy offered in remembrance of Saint ’Iliyân’s feast on the sixth of February. Prayers are offered to God, and the intercessions of His martyr are asked, for peace in Syria, for the healing of the country, and for the æternal remembrance of the heroic soldiers of the Syrian Arab Army and the people of Homs who have suffered and been killed in the war. Holy great-martyr and unmercenary ’Iliyân, pray unto Christ our God for the healing of us sinners!
Your holy martyr ’Iliyân, O Lord,
Through his suffering has received an incorruptible crown from You, our God.
For having Your strength, he laid low his adversaries,
And shattered the powerless boldness of demons.
Through his intercessions, save our souls!
HH Patriarch John X of Antioch
at the Church of Saint Elian in Homs, Syria, 2015
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