ON ST. HYPERECHIUS, PRIEST AND CONFESSOR.
His cult among the Greeks, his apophthegms, his age.
Fourth century.
CommentaryHyperechius, Priest and Confessor, among the Greeks (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. P.
This Saint I find inserted among the Greeks on the present day in the Great Menaea published in print, His cult is established: and also in the manuscript Menaeon of Chifflet. The Menaea announce him thus: On the same day (the seventh of August) St. Hyperechius is consummated in peace. There follow these little verses:
Though Hyperechius was hidden in the tomb, He was nevertheless higher than the angels themselves.
The poet's allusion is plain in the proper name of the Martyr, "Hyperechius," as though derived from the verb hyperechō, that is, I stand out, I am higher; and in the comparative hyperteros, higher, more excellent. But the aforesaid Menaeon says most briefly: Hyperechius in peace. In Combefis, at the place presently to be indicated, he is given the title "of the blessed," and that of priest; but in the Lives of the Fathers, the name of abbot, so common to the ancient solitaries; where for Hyperechius is written Hyperichius. But although not too much authority is to be granted to the Greek Menaea concerning the Saints whom they mark, as the examples teach, in the Chronological History of the Patriarchs of Constantinople before volume 1 of this month, parergon 7, from page 94*; and although Rufinus, praising him, as I shall presently say, does not seem, on account of his errors, to establish a certain credit concerning the sanctity of Hyperechius: nevertheless, because nothing occurs to us from elsewhere why we should deservedly hold it either false or suspect, and indeed the Saint is in possession of it; therefore we have thought that he should be left in it, and reckoned among the remaining Saints of this day. Let the same be said proportionally concerning the other Saints known from the Greek registers alone.
[2] some sayings of the Saint I subjoin some of his apophthegms from the Lives of the Fathers published by Rosweyde. On page 519 you have his hatred against detractors. Abbot Hyperichius said: It is better to eat flesh and to drink wine than to eat the flesh of the brethren by reviling them. For just as the whispering serpent drove Eve out of paradise, so he who detracts from his brother destroys not only his own soul but also that of the hearer. On page 566 he indicates his sense concerning the divine mercy: Night and day the monk labors, keeping vigil, persevering in prayers: but piercing his heart he brings forth tears, and more swiftly provokes God's mercy. On page 571 he heaps together various distinguished lessons: Because as the lion is terrible to wild asses, so is the monk approved in the thoughts of concupiscence. He said again: Fasting is a bridle to the monk against sin. But he who casts off fasting is carried away like a horse burning with desire for a mare. He said again: The body of the monk dried up by fasting raises the soul from the deep, and the monk's fasting dries up the channels of delights. He said again: The chaste monk will be honored on earth, and in the heavens he will be crowned with a crown by the Most High, etc.
[3] On page 583 he commends voluntary poverty: The monk's treasure is voluntary poverty. are brought forward. Lay up treasure, therefore, for yourself, brother, in heaven, because there are ages there for resting without end. On page 587 he suggests arms against temptations: Let spiritual hymns be in your mouth, and let assiduous meditation lift the weight of the temptations coming upon you. For a manifest example of this matter is a traveler weighed down by the burden of some load: by blowing and breathing he little by little lessens the labor of the load and of the road. You will find more things in the same place on pages 603, 611, 618, 626, 633. Cotelier, in the Monuments of the Greek Church, volume 1, page 701, published certain apophthegms of our Saint in Greek and Latin. But the religious exhortation of ascetics, which in Greek is entitled Parainesis askētōn, consisting of 159 chapters or numbers, Combefis made public in his most recent Auctarium, part 1, page 315 and following.
[4] Concerning the time in which St. Hyperechius flourished, I discourse thus. The apophthegm which I excerpted above from the Lives of the Fathers, page 519, He lived in the fourth century. is held among those which are attributed either to the author or to the translator Rufinus, priest of Aquileia (concerning which matter Rosweyde may be seen in the fifth Prolegomenon to the Lives of the Fathers, page XXIX). But since Rufinus wrote in the fourth century as it was drawing to a close, hence it follows that our Saint seems to belong to the times of the said century, or perhaps even to the very end of the one immediately preceding. Rufinus indeed, according to what has been said, wrote about him; therefore he lived after him or with him: but since it is hidden from me whether and how long he preceded Rufinus, I have fixed his death above in the fourth century, in which the anchoretic life flourished greatly, as we have from the deeds of St. Antony the Great. See the Commentary previous to them among us at the seventeenth day of January.