Saint Hesychios of Antioch
القدّيس الشهيد إيسيخيوس الأنطاكي
The tenth of March is the feast day in the Orthodox Church of Saint Hesychios, a martyr of Antioch who suffered at the beginning of the fourth century. A Hellenised Syrian who served in a high position in the Roman administration, he was stripped of his honours and executed for confessing Christ. He was glorified by God in the same wave of persecutions under Maximian in which shone forth Saint ’Ilyân of Homs.
Holy Martyr Hesychios [Gk. Ἡσύχιος, Ar. ’Îsîkhiyyûs al-’Anṭaki إيسيخيوس الأنطاكي] was probably born in the latter half of the third century. He embarked on a career in the Roman military, where he proved himself to be both capable and trustworthy. We know this because he attained to the ranks of the agentes in rebus or angeliaphoroi, the couriers of the Magistros in the Roman military postal system. Hesychios was given by the Roman government a valuable sash for his services, a mark of singular honour and merit among the mighty.
When the persecutions of Emperor Maximian began, a decree went down that all Christians serving in high office who refused to recant their faith in Christ were to be stripped of their honours and expelled from their offices, to live without honour as civilians. This happened to Hesychios when he refused to honour the Roman gods. When Maximian heard of this, he ordered additionally that Hesychios be stripped of all his clothing and be made to wear a rough sleeveless mantle made of hair, and to be as disdained and dishonoured as if he had consorted with women of ill repute.
When this was done Maximian invited the former angeliaphoros before him and goaded him: ‘Well, Hesychios, are you not ashamed that you lost the honour and office of courier, and that you have been debased to this kind of life? Or maybe you don't know that the Christians, whose way of life you preferred, have no power to restore you to your previous great honour and office?’
To which Hesychios answered: ‘Your honour, O Emperor, is temporary. But the honour and glory which Christ gives is everlasting and without end.’
Upon hearing this, the displeased Maximian ordered that Hesychios be taken out to the Orontes (now the Nahr al-‘Âṣi), and that a millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be cast into the river. This sentence was carried out, and thus the laudable athlete Hesychios attained to the laurels of martyrdom and the everlasting glory which he had sought from Christ. Holy martyr Hesychios, who disdained the honours of the world and sought the imperishable glories of the kingdom of heaven, pray unto Christ our God that our souls may be saved!
Apolytikion of Saint Hesychios, Tone 4:
Thy Martyr, O Lord, in his courageous contest for Thee
Received the prize of the crowns of incorruption and life from Thee, our immortal God.
For since he possessed Thy strength,
He cast down the tyrants
And wholly destroyed the demons’ strengthless presumption.
O Christ God, by his prayers, save our souls, since Thou art merciful!
Orontes River (Nahr al-‘Âṣi) at Antioch
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