Hypatius

ON SS. HYPATIUS, BISHOP, AND ANDREW, PRIEST, MARTYRS,

AT CONSTANTINOPLE.

Under Leo the Isaurian.

Hypatius, bishop and martyr, at Constantinople (St.)

Andrew, priest and martyr, at Constantinople (St.)

J. P.

The Roman Martyrology announces these two champions of Christ thus: At Constantinople, the holy martyrs Hypatius, bishop of Asia, and Andrew the priest, who for the cultus of the holy images under Leo the Isaurian, their beards being smeared with pitch and set on fire, and the skin of their heads torn off, were slain. In the Menology of the Greeks, which was published from the translation of Cardinal Sirletus by Henry Canisius, they are thus reported on the XX day of September: On the same day, the commemoration of the holy fathers and confessors Hypatius the bishop and Andrew the priest. There follows in the same place the narrative of the martyrdom in these words: These, from the region of the Lydians, are taught as boys in a certain school: Hypatius indeed embraced the monastic life, but Andrew stood forth as a sacred herald in the Church; and not only were they eminent in fastings, vigils, and prayers, but they surpassed others also in humility, modesty, and charity. But when he who presided at Ephesus had learned their virtues, he ordained Hypatius bishop and Andrew priest: which when the hater of the saints, the impious emperor Leo, had heard, he ordered them to be summoned to him and shut them up in prison, and commanded them to be torn, and the skin to be drawn from their heads; and they received very many holy images burning upon their heads; and, their beards being smeared with pitch, they were dragged through the middle of the city (namely Constantinople), and at the parts of the Xerolophus they were slain and cast forth as food for dogs. Baronius narrates their martyrdom at the year of Christ 735.

* ἱεροκήρυξ.