CONCERNING ST. PAPHNUTIUS,
BISHOP AND MARTYR AMONG THE GREEKS.
CommentaryPaphnutius, Bishop and Martyr among the Greeks (St.)
D. P.
The Canon of sacred odes, set forth on this day in the Greater Menaea of the Greeks, is entirely devoted to the praises of Saint Paphnutius Hieromartyr, which title is of Bishops alone. From his proper office the Episcopal dignity is had, With this agrees the last strophe of the eighth Ode, "As thou wast truly shown forth beautiful in many contests, O Hieromartyr; clothed in the sacred stole, reddened with thy blood." You appeared truly beautiful, O Hieromartyr, clothed in the sacred stole made purple with your blood. But lest you understand the stole simply as sacerdotal, but take it as Pontifical, and at the same time know by what kind of torment his blood was poured out, hear the third strophe of the first Ode. "Thou didst illuminate with sacred dogmas, O Hierarch, the chosen people, torment of the sword, and drank the cup of the Lord through the sword, contending most bravely." You illumined the elect people with sacred dogmas, O Hierarch; and you drank the cup of the Lord through the sword, contending most mightily. Elsewhere the multitude of torments, endured before the execution of the head, is indicated, and in Ode V it is said, that he feared in no way swords, nor wild beasts, nor fire, nor death.
[2] At what place and time he overthrew by his endurance the camps of impiety, as is said in the Sticharion at First Vespers; not likewise the place of Martyrdom. and, terrible to the adverse powers, showed himself a true worshiper of the Trinity, as the II Strophe of Ode 6 congratulates him, wiping those away, but illuminating the ranks of the faithful; it is not easy to attain by divining. For there is absent from this day in the Menaea, contrary to the usual practice, the lection of the Synaxarium congruent with the Canon itself, which would have exhibited an epitome of the history; and in
all the many manuscripts we have seen, no eulogy has yet appeared, on this or any other day, which could be fitted to the Saint here praised. Yet because nowhere is any mention made of heresies or heretics, but only of impiety overcome, we seem safely to believe, he seems to have suffered under the pagan Emperors that his martyrdom belongs to the persecutions of the primitive church under the pagan Emperors. The present tables of the Roman Martyrology, augmented from the Menology of Sirlet, have thus: At Jerusalem, of Saint Paphnutius Martyr. But that seems too loose an interpretation of the words of Sirlet, which sound thus: of Saint Martyr Paphnutius of Jerusalem, distinct from him is the Jerusalemite. distinguished by piety and the testimony of right faith: of which eulogy the latter part, which certainly fits this one to whom the whole Canon of the present day is devoted; does not so certainly fit him whose memory is celebrated on the following day, without any indication of martyrdom, and who only by the title of birth or habitation seems to be called of Jerusalem.
[3] His body in great veneration, perhaps at Constantinople. Whoever he was and wherever he suffered, he had most celebrated reverence of an annual feast in the city to which the sacred body afterward brought gave occasion for the composing of the Canon. That this city was either the royal Constantinople itself or some neighboring one, the Menaea make probable, seeing they were printed from exemplars brought from the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Now it is said in Ode VII that the Church of Christ exults, which possesses, as a precious treasure, the sacred casket of the Martyr's relics: and in Ode II the faithful glory, the oil drops forth giving health, that they oppose to the demons an impregnable wall, while they anoint themselves with the divine oil which flows from his remains. Whence it appears that he too is one of the Myroblyte (oil-flowing) Saints, and not merely metaphorically but literally to be understood, as the third Sticharion at First Vespers notes in these words, "The casket of your relics, O Hieromartyr of Christ, as a river gushes forth streams of healings." The casket of your relics, O Christ's Hieromartyr, as a river overflows with streams of healings.
[4] he is invoked for the peace of the Church. The whole Canon concludes with this strophe, "Still by thy prayers, O Martyr, the swelling tempest of the Church, and him who tries to pervert the straight ways of our God by the inspirations of heresies, O glorious one, and ask peace for all." Still by your prayers, O Martyr, the effervescent tempest of the Church, and him striving to subvert the straight ways of our God by the inspirations of heresies, O glorious Martyr: and ask peace for us all. From which you may gather that this hymn was composed while the affairs of the church were perturbed; and that before the times of the Iconoclasts, perhaps under Zeno or Justin, under whom in matters of religion there was much affliction.
[5] In the Synaxaria, both those we found at Turin in the Library of the Duke and those at Paris with Combefis and with Cardinal Mazarin, Another Paphnutius Martyr Sept. 24 there is set forth on this day the eulogy of some Paphnutius the Egyptian, crucified under Diocletian and the President Arrian, of whom also some Acts under the name of Metaphrastes are extant in Lipomanus, on April 28. But he is referred in the Menaea to September 25, as is clear from the eulogy, which on that or the preceding day is found in all other manuscript Synaxaria.