CONCERNING ST. ABIRCIUS THE MARTYR
CommentaryAbircius, Martyr (Saint)
G. H.
We consider Abircius and Abercius to be the same name, quite celebrated among the early Christians. For at Hierapolis in Phrygia there were two successive bishops named Abercius, Abercius, or Abircius as the Acts of the first testify, to be given on October 22. He flourished in the times of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus: 1st and 2nd Bishops of Hierapolis to whom there exists a letter from him on behalf of the Christians, which has the savor of an apostolic spirit. He is called by the Greeks Avircius, Abircius, Abercius. After these Abercii, St. Claudius Apollinaris succeeded to the see of Hierapolis: whose Acts we gave on February 7, and we said on page 8, number 28, that the work written against the Cataphrygian heretics at the urging of Abercius Marcellus 3rd, surnamed Marcellus seems to be his: concerning whom Eusebius, book 5 of his Ecclesiastical History, chapter 16, records the following: For a very long time and amply, beloved Abercius Marcellus, I have been urged by you to compose some treatise against the heresy of those who are called Cataphrygians. Etc. Nicephorus also mentions him in book 4, chapter 23. Whether this Abercius ended his life crowned with the palm of martyrdom, 4th, Martyr, February 28 we cannot determine by conjecture. There is the name, there is the zeal and a certain emulation for Christ, and there are also the times of persecutions: so that what is recorded in the Greek Menaia about a certain Abircius on this day could easily have been his fate. It reads as follows: On the same day the holy Martyr Abircius was slain by the sword. The same is expressed more clearly in the verses added in the Menaia:
A worshiper of Christ, his neck severed by the sword, Abircius puts to shame the worshipers of the gods.
On December 5, the memory of St. Abercius the Martyr, who was also slain by the sword, is inscribed in the same Greek Menaia: 5th, Martyr, December 5 and these verses are appended:
Great is the reward given to Abercius for his beheading. For the crown is not an oleaster, but heaven.
Finally, another St. Abercius the Martyr is venerated along with Helena on May 26, 6th, Martyr, May 26 and in the Menaia and Menologion he is joined to the holy Apostle Alphaeus, the brother of the Lord, and seems to be more ancient than the rest. Behold six Abercii who, in the first centuries, in times of persecution, gloriously professed the faith of Christ. Whether any of their Acts should be assigned to one and the same person, we cannot determine with certainty for lack of ancient records. It is not relevant here to mention other illustrious men of the same name who lived afterward. Among these was an Abercius who, as Bishop of the same Hierapolis, subscribed to the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon in the year 451.