ON ST. HORMISDAS THE MARTYR
IN PERSIA.
Fourth century.
CommentaryHormisdas, M., in Persia (S.)
J. B. S.
The name of this notable Martyr Theodoret made celebrated in book 5, chapter 39, of his History, where he also gathers several other most glorious champions for the faith of Christ, whom the monstrous cruelty of king Sapor led to the laurel of martyrdom. Among the old Martyrologists whom we call Classic he is not known, nor any more among the more recent ones reviewed in the Usuardine supplements, nor indeed does Baronius in his annotations cite any source from which he received him, so that he himself must be judged the first who ascribed this holy Hormisdas to the Roman Martyrology on the faith of Theodoret, whom Nicephorus and others followed, so that to have copied out the words of that historian is all that can be reported concerning this St. Hormisdas, and which accordingly I have not thought should be sought from elsewhere. I know indeed that in Sozomen, speaking of the same persecution of Sapor, when he enumerates twenty bishops in book 2, chapter 13, at the end, a certain Hormisdas also is reckoned, but that this man is not to be confounded with our present one is most certain from the attendant circumstances. Theodoret alone therefore is to be heard, from the edition of Valesius in the place cited, where he speaks thus:
There was a certain Hormisdas, very noble among the Persians, of the stock of the Achaemenids, sprung from a father who was a prefect. Him the king, when he had learned that he was a Christian, ordered to be brought to him, and to deny God his Savior. But he answered that the king was commanding things which were neither just nor useful. For he, he said, who has learned easily to despise and deny the highest God of all, will much more easily despise a king, since the latter is a man liable to death. But if he is worthy of the extreme penalty who has denied your scepter, O king, how much heavier punishments does he deserve who denies God, the founder of all this universe? But the king, who ought rather to have admired the wisdom of these words, despoiled the most valiant athlete of his riches and honors; and, naked, covered only with a loincloth, ordered him to lead the camels of the army. Many days having elapsed afterward, the king, looking out from a chamber, sees that excellent man scorched by the rays of the sun and covered with dust. Then, mindful of his father's nobility, he summons him to himself, and orders him to put on a linen tunic. After this, thinking his mind softened partly by the hardship of the past time, partly by his present kindness: Now at last, he said, that contention being cast aside, deny the carpenter's son. Then Hormisdas, filled with divine zeal, tore the tunic apart, and threw it before the king, and adding: If you think that for the sake of this I would depart from godliness, keep your gift to yourself along with your impiety. Observing this constancy, the king cast him out from the borders of his empire, naked as he was.