Prochorus

ON SAINT PROCHORUS, ONE OF THE FIRST DEACONS,

BISHOP OF NICOMEDIA AND MARTYR AT ANTIOCH.

FIRST CENTURY.

Prochorus, one of the first deacons, Bishop of Nicomedia, Martyr at Antioch (St)

G. H.

On what occasion the first deacons were created by the Apostles, the Evangelist Luke thus relates in chapter 6 of Acts, near the beginning: "In those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Greeks against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, Among the 7 first deacons appointed by the Apostles and said, 'It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.' And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, Saint Prochorus and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch. Whom they set before the apostles: and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them. And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient unto the faith." Thus far Saint Luke, who in the rest of chapter 6 and all of chapter 7 goes on to the acts, disputations, and martyrdom of Saint Stephen: so that the other deacons, like him, seem to have been full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom; and, with the exception of Nicolas the proselyte (because he is handed down as the cause and author, or at least the occasion, of the heresy of the Nicolaitans), the rest are inscribed in the sacred calendars of the Latins and Greeks. Philip is venerated by the Latins on June 6, by the Greeks on October 11. Besides these, Nicanor and Parmenas are inscribed in the Roman Martyrology and others, on January 10 and 23, on which days we have treated of them. The other two have their veneration in this month of April, on the 9th Prochorus, on the 19th Timon.

[2] These four the Greeks venerate with one solemnity in their printed and manuscript Menaia, he is venerated with 3 others by the Greeks on July 28, in the Anthologium, in the Synaxarion, and in other liturgical books; from which this elogium is found in the Menologium of Sirletus: "July 28. Birthday of the Blessed Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, and Parmenas. These, when they were of the number of the holy Apostles, having suffered persecution in different places for the preaching of the Christian faith, because they confessed Christ the Lord to be the Son of God and perfect man, obtained the crown of martyrdom." So it is written. Dorotheus in the Synopsis concerning the Seventy Disciples of Christ has this about Saint Prochorus: "Prochorus, and he is called Bishop of Nicomedia one of the seven, was Bishop of Nicomedia, a city of Bithynia." Hippolytus the Martyr says, Πρόχωρος Ἐπίσκοπος Νικομηδείας, then adds "who first went forth," namely from Jerusalem where he was ministering together with the other six, "believing with his daughters"—of whom elsewhere we have as yet read nothing. Nor indeed do those two little works merit much trust, ordained by Saint Peter but are rejected as pseudepigrapha by learned men. That he was made bishop of the said city by Saint Peter is found in the Greek Oration on the labors and travels of the Apostles Peter and Paul, published in Latin by Lipomano and Surius on June 29; in which, after the author has indicated that these holy Apostles, three years after Saint Paul's conversion, met at Jerusalem, he adds: "Blessed Paul set out to the work to which he had been called, but the great Peter, returning to Antioch, where he had appointed Euodius bishop, came to Synnada a city of Phrygia, then to Nicomedia, in which, after he had ordained Prochorus bishop, he came to the city of Ilium of the Hellespont." Sophronius hands down similar things in the fragment on the Contests and travels of Saints Peter and Paul.

[3] Peter de Natalibus in book 4 of his Catalogue, chapter 39, drew up this elogium of him: "Prochorus, Deacon and Martyr, suffered at Antioch, of the seven first who were chosen by the Apostles, a man most famous in faith and miracles, suffered at Antioch, as Jerome says in the Martyrology. He, as he himself wrote about himself, was nephew of Saint Stephen the Protomartyr, and companion of John the Evangelist, when the latter was sent to preach in Asia; remaining a long time with him, he was made Bishop of Nicomedia in Bithynia; whence, after the conversion of many, he was sent by the same Apostle to Antioch to preach, April 9, where, crowned with martyrdom, he ended his life on the 5th day before the Ides of April, and there rests in peace." So Peter de Natalibus, who often attributes the older manuscript Martyrologies to Saint Jerome, inscribed in the Latin calendars. such as we have from the monastery of Centula and another from the Queen of Sweden, written at Fulda or in neighboring places, in which the following is read: "Birthday of Blessed Prochorus, a man most famous in faith and miracles, consummated at Antioch and resting there." Usuard has things similar to these: "On the same day," he says, "the birthday of Blessed Prochorus, who was one of the seven first deacons. This man, famous for faith and miracles, was consummated by martyrdom at Antioch." Similar things are found in the Martyrologies of Ado, Notker, the present-day Roman Martyrology, and others. Wrongly ascribed to him is the history of Saint John the Evangelist. More are added from Peter de Natalibus in Maurolico, Felicius, and Galesinius: that he was nephew of Saint Stephen, and companion of Saint John the Evangelist. Indeed by others he is said to be the author of the little book on the Life, miracles, and assumption of Saint John the Evangelist, which exists in Greek and Latin in the Orthodoxographa published at Basel in 1569, and in Latin in the History of the Fathers of Lawrence Barreus and in the Bibliotheca veterum Patrum. But that little book is filled with fables and falsehoods, and long ago was rejected as apocryphal by Baronius, Bellarmine, Molanus, Lorinus, and others; as may be said more fully when we come to treat of Saint John the Evangelist.

[4] That some relics of Saint Prochorus the Deacon are preserved at Bologna in the Church of Saint John on the Mount of the Canons Regular of the Lateran Are relics at Bologna? is handed down by Masini in Bologna perlustrata. "Proculus Martyr" is named in the Calendar of the Milan Breviary published in 1539; but "Procorus" in the Calendar of the Missal of the same Church printed in 1522 and 1560. He may have suffered in Italy, perhaps among the Insubres, whence his cult formerly prevailed at Milan; or he may have been translated thither from the Roman catacombs, and some part of him, or of another martyr of similar name, carried off to Bologna. At any rate some document must be produced before these relics are reasonably believed to be those of the Prochorus of whom we are speaking, since they may have been brought from the East at the time of the holy wars.