ON THE HOLY BISHOPS AND MARTYRS, HERODION OF PATRAS
THE NEW, ASYNCRITUS OF HYRCANIA, PHLEGON OF MARATHON, AND HERMES OF DALMATIA.
First Century
CommentaryHerodion of Patras the New, Bishop and Martyr (St.)
Asyncritus of Hyrcania, Bishop and Martyr (St.)
Phlegon of Marathon, Bishop and Martyr (St.)
Hermes of Dalmatia, Bishop and Martyr (St.)
BY G. H.
[1] The Greeks, in the printed and manuscript Menaia, and in the Menologion of Cardinal Sirleto, as well as in Maximus, Bishop of the Cytherians, celebrate today the memory of Saints Herodion, Agabus, Rufus, Phlegon, Asyncritus, and Hermas, asserting that they were of the seventy disciples of Christ, and, according to the usage of their Church, often call them Apostles. Of these, some are venerated separately by the Latins and in the Roman Martyrology, Veneration among the Greeks and Latins. such as Agabus on February 13, and Rufus on November 21. Omitting these, we treat on this day of the others: and concerning three in the Roman Martyrology, these things are read: On the same day, the commemoration of Saints Herodion, Asyncritus, and Phlegon, of whom Blessed Paul the Apostle writes in his epistle to the Romans.
[2] Concerning Saint Herodion, these things are found in the Greek Menaia and the new Anthology: "Of these is Herodion, of whom the great Apostle Paul made mention. Saint Herodion, Bishop of Patras the New, He ministered to all the Apostles: whom they themselves afterwards made first Presbyter, then Bishop of Patras the New. When he had converted many pagans to Christ by his teaching, he suffered much through the envy of the Jews. For an attack being made upon him together with the idolaters, first they cruelly beat him and bruised his face with stones; then he was hung by the head on a wooden rack by the same men, and finally he fell, pierced by the sword." These same things, almost word for word, are read in the same Menaia on March 28: on which same day in the Menologion of Emperor Basil Porphyrogenitus there is a eulogy, somewhat more fully developed, which we have published in Greek at the end of March, and which runs thus in Latin: "And the contest of the holy Apostle Herodion, He served the Apostles, one of the seventy. Herodion, Apostle of Christ, was one of the seventy disciples: who, imitating the holy Apostles, cooperated with them in preaching the faith of Christ, serving and obeying them in all things, as a disciple of Christ who so commanded, 'Whoever wishes to be first of all, let him be the servant of all and the minister of all.' Afterwards he was ordained by the same Apostles as Bishop of the city of Patras the New: where he instructed many of the pagans in the true faith and converted them to Christ. Having suffered various torments, On this account the Jews, stirred up by envy, and making an attack upon him together with the idolaters, seized him and afflicted him with monstrous torments: for some struck him, others bruised his face with stones, others beat his head with clubs; finally, like cruel and savage beasts thirsting for his blood, they cut him down with the sword like a chosen ram, and thus he delivered up his blessed soul to Christ the Lord, he is beheaded, for whom he underwent a violent death." In the Synopsis on the Seventy Disciples, fabricated under the name of Dorotheus, you have these things: "Herodion, of whom the Apostle made mention in the same epistle to the Romans, was also made Bishop of Patras." Patras is a city of Achaia proper in the Peloponnese, famous for the death and veneration of Saint Andrew the Apostle. But Ortelius asserts that this Patras is called "Old" by Constantinopolitan writers; and that "Patras the New" is read in Gregoras and Nicetas, as in the eulogies already cited: but where it was situated we have not yet been able to learn. There is Patara, a city of Lycia, in which we said on February 18 that Saints Leo and Paregorius suffered, but nowhere do we read that it is called New Patara. Some think that Saint Herodion came to this city, having previously been Bishop of Tarsus, as they gather from Pseudo-Hippolytus on the Seventy-two Disciples: where his name is found thus expressed: Ἡρωδίων Ἐπίσκοπος Ταρσοῦ (Herodion, Bishop of Tarsus), with nothing more added. It is also necessary that he was at Rome when Saint Paul wrote his epistle to the Romans, a kinsman of Saint Paul, in which, chapter 16, verse 11, he desires that they greet Herodion, his kinsman, of the same nation and religion. The Ruthenians in their calendar, in Possevinus' Apparatus, with a corrupted name, write "Radion."
[3] In the same chapter of the said epistle to the Romans, Saint Paul desires that Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, and the brethren who were with them, be greeted, from whom Asyncritus, Phlegon, and Hermes are celebrated on this day by the Greeks: and concerning Phlegon this distich is read in the Menaia:
Σβέσας πλάνης φλέγουσαν ὁ φλέγων φλόγα, Saint Phlegon, Οὓς Δαβὶδ ἐῖπε, πῦρ φλέγων βλέπει νόας.
Phlegon extinguished the burning flame of error; And he sees the minds which David calls fire.
The minds, I say, angelic ones, of which the royal Prophet speaks in Psalm 103, "Who makes your angels spirits, and your ministers a burning fire." There is an allusion to the meaning of the name, which is taken from φλέγω, "I burn, I blaze": a similar allusion is in the following distich, which is applied to Saint Asyncritus (in Latin you would say "Incomparable"):
Ἀσύγκριτον εὗρεν ὁ Ἀσύγκριτος δόξαν, and Saint Asyncritus, Δοξάσας ἐν γῇ τὸν Θεὸν Ἀσυγκρίτως.
Asyncritus bore incomparable praise, As he gave incomparable praise to God.
[4] Having suffered martyrdom, In the eulogy itself, after the praises given to Saint Herodion and the others, they add: "Rufus was appointed Bishop of Thebes, as also Phlegon, and the rest proclaimed the true faith to unbelievers throughout the whole world. Therefore on one and the same day, tortured by the Jews and pagans with various torments, they ended their life in the Lord." In the Catalogue of the Seventy Disciples, which we have from a Greek Vatican manuscript under the name of Saint Hippolytus the Martyr, and which we have already cited above in the case of Herodion, are named Ἀσύγκριτος Ἐπίσκοπος Ὑρκανίας (Asyncritus, Bishop of Hyrcania), and Φλέγων Ἐπίσκοπος Μάρθων: which is more fully written "of the Marathonians" in the likewise previously cited but equally doubtful Synopsis, where concerning these Saints these things are read: "Asyncritus, himself also mentioned by the Apostle to the Romans, was made Bishop of Hyrcania. Phlegon, whom also the Apostle mentioned in the same epistle, was appointed Bishop of Marathon." Now Marathon is an episcopal city of Attic Achaia under the Archbishop of Corinth. But Hyrcania is a region, in which there is also a metropolis Hyrcania, far distant, beyond Assyria and Media, both are praised as Bishops, at the Caspian Sea, which is also called Hyrcanian. Both the Greeks confirm in their Odes, Troparia, and Sticharia composing the office of this eighth day, whose author Joseph the Hymnographer bound the Canon, which he composed for these Apostolic men, to this acrostic, and at the end to his own name:
Ἀποστόλοις πλέξωμεν ἕνθεον μέλως. ΙΩΣΗΦ. Asyncritus of Hyrcania,
"Let us weave a sacred hymn for the Apostles. Joseph."
Namely, the individual letters begin the individual strophes, as has often been said: wherefore the Latin version has also endeavored to retain the same number of letters: and in the acrostic itself are also contained the Theotokia or Marian pieces terminating the individual Odes, which is not generally the case in other similar ones.
[5] Many praises are here heaped up, both of all jointly and of each separately: and concerning Saint Asyncritus these things indeed are recited: "Preaching the death of the impassible God, the prudent Asyncritus brought the mortified to life, the glory of the Apostles, and the prudent bulwark of Hyrcania. Hyrcania found you, Asyncritus, a river full of the wellspring of spiritual waters; and watered by your venerable irrigation, brought forth most pleasant fruits to Christ the Lord." Thus there of Saint Asyncritus: but of Saint Phlegon these things are handed down: "Holy Phlegon, you gloriously burned up the errors of the Gentiles by your divine discourses, Phlegon of Marathon. and manifestly kindled hearts miserably extinguished with the warmth of the spirit. The inhabitants of the city of Marathon, having obtained you as their greatest President and best Teacher, indeed as illuminator and instructor, O glorious Phlegon, incessantly venerate you." In other odes, as plainly apostolic men, they are honored with very many encomia together with the others indicated above; and Asyncritus is surnamed "the Great," and Phlegon "the Divine." The tables of the Muscovite calendar for these two join two others from the same number of the Seventy Disciples to Saint Herodion, namely Agabus and Rufus, of whom we have treated of the former on February 13, and shall treat of the latter on November 21.
[6] But the Hermes who is celebrated in the last place, in the aforesaid Catalogue of pseudo-Hippolytus, is said to have been Bishop of Dalmatia, different from Saint Hermas, Bishop of the Philippians, Saint Hermes, Bishop of Dalmatia. whose memory is celebrated by the Latins on May 9, and among the Greeks on March 8: from whom another Hermes is also established in the Apostle Paul, who in the distich is said to have suffered very many injuries, to have obtained the glory of the great God, and in the Odes is surnamed illustrious, glorious, who like the sun illuminated Dalmatia. The rest are common with the others.