Saint Ananias of Damascus and Eleutheropolis
It is also the feast-day, in the Orthodox Church, of the Syriac bishop of the early Christian church who healed the sight of the blinded Saul, and baptised him Paul in the name of Jesus Christ: Saint Ananias, one of the 70 apostles mentioned in the Book of Acts.
Saint Ananias [also Hananiah חנניה in Hebrew, or Hanâniyeh حنانیه in modern Arabic] is first mentioned in the ninth chapter of the Book of Acts. Saul describes him as ‘a devout man according to the Law [of Moses]’ (Acts 22:12). Ananias beheld the Lord in a vision, and the Lord instructed him to go into As-Shâri‘ al-Mustaqîm, also called Bâb Shârqi and Via Recta (‘Straight Street’), where he would find Saul of Tarsus, three days blind and hungry, in the house of a certain Judah who lived there. For Saul himself had been visited by God on the road to Damascus following the martyrdom of Protomartyr Stephen, and had been dazzled blind by the vision and voice of Christ he had seen. This conversion experience is something of which world leaders – including President al-‘Asad in the country in question – have prayed for a certain repetition, something for which I too pray.
The vicious reputation of Saul of Tarsus had, indeed, preceded him. Ananias was reticent to heal him, and argued with the Lord, telling the evil he had heard of this man. But the Lord assured him that He had His own plan for Saul, and the many things which he must do and which he must suffer for His sake. In the end the will of God prevailed upon Ananias, who went as he was bidden to the house of Judah and greeted Saul in the name of Christ. As Ananias lay his hands upon Saul, scales fell from Saul’s eyes and his sight was restored. Ananias then baptised Saul and gave him food to eat.
This much of Saint Ananias we know from the Book of Acts, and from it we may infer several things. He was a faithful servant of Christ, for he answered at once when he was called. For all that, though, he was more than willing to argue with the Lord, as the Jewish folk before him were so often wont to do – and which tradition is carried on gladly by certain Antiochian Christians! But he was also willing, in the last instance, to follow God out of his personal comfort zone, to go and heal someone who had been his mortal enemy, and even to call him ‘brother’.
Later tradition has it that Saint Ananias left Damascus to preach in Bayt Jibrîn in the Holy Land, which several centuries later would be renamed by the Romans Eleutheropolis. He not only preached the good news of the Resurrection there, without fear of persecution or reprisals which were ever-present, but also performed wondrous healings in Christ’s name. The Roman præfect, a man named Lucian, had Saint Ananias brought before him and tried to convince him to offer incense to idols to prove his loyalty. Ananias refused, confessing only belief in Christ. Lucian had Ananias tortured, but tortures would not sway him; at last the Roman præfect ordered the martyr of Christ to be stoned to death outside the city. Saint Ananias prayed for those who executed him at the end. The relics of Saint Ananias were taken up by local Christians and translated back to Damascus, and from there to Constantinople. However, the Surp Zoravor Church in Erevan, Armenia also claims his relics. Saint Ananias is remembered on the first of October in the Orthodox Church; and on the twenty-fifth of January in the West. Holy apostle Ananias, baptiser of the all-laudable leader of the Apostles, pray unto Christ our God for us sinners!
O holy apostle Ananias
Entreat the merciful God
That He grant to our souls remission of transgressions!
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