ON ST. HERACLIUS THE MARTYR.
Cult among the Greeks.
Heraclius, Martyr, among the Greeks (S.)
J. P.
As certainly as this holy Martyr is unknown in most Synaxaria, so expressly is he marked in the Menaeon of Chifflet. These things are in the Sirmond-Chifflet Supplement to the printed Menaea: Ὁ ἅγιος Ἡράκλειος ἐπίσκοπος ῥοπάλοις τυπτόμενος τελ. St. Heraclius the Bishop, beaten with clubs, consummates his martyrdom. Τὰς ἐκ ῥοπάλων Ἡράκλειος αἰκίας Ὡς Ἡρακλῆς ῥόπαλον αὐχήσει τάχα. Heraclius, while he suffers the blows of clubs, soon bears off triumphs, as Hercules bore the club. There is an allusion to Heraclius and Hercules, and again to τὸ ῥόπαλον, which in the first verse signifies the club or cudgel by which St. Heraclius was slain; but in the second denotes the club of Hercules.