ON ST. METHODIUS THE MARTYR
BISHOP OF PATARA IN LYCIA.
A. UNDER DECIUS?
HISTORICAL SYLLOGE.
On his cultus; and whether he is the same as or different from the Bishop of Olympus, famous for his writings.
Methodius the Martyr, Bishop of Patara in Lycia (S.)
AUTHOR G. H.
[1] Most celebrated on this XX day of June is the memory of St. Methodius, Bishop of Patara, in all the sacred books of the Greeks both printed and written by hand, as many as anywhere we could find, beginning from the Typicon itself, Memory in the Typicon of S. Sabas customarily cited under the name of S. Sabas the Abbot, in which Methodius Bishop of Patara is mentioned; and in the Great Menaea a whole Office is made for him alone: whence also notice of him reached the Muscovites. In the Greek Menologium published under the authority of the Emperor Basil Porphyrogenitus in the tenth century of Christ, this brief and only Elogium is had on the said day: Μηνὶ τῷ ἀυτῷ κ᾽. Ἄθλησις τοῦ ἀγίου Ἱερομάρτυρος Μεθοδίου Ἐπισκόπου Πατάρων. Μεθοδιος ὁ τοῦ Χριστοῦ Ἱερομάρτυς, ἑαυτὸν τῷ Θεῷ ἀναθεὶς, σκεῦος τίμιον καὶ δοχεῖον τοῦ θείου Πνεύματος γέγονεν. Ὅθεν καὶ ψήφῳ Θεοῦ τῆς ἀρχιεροσὺνης αξιωθεὶς, καὶ τῆς ἐν Πατάροις ἐκκλησίας Επίσκοπος γεγονὼς, καλῶς ἐποίμανε τὸ ποίμνιον ἀυτοῦ· διὸ καὶ τὴν Ὠριγένους αἴρεσιν πλεονάζουσαν ἰδὼν, ὡς ἄριστος ποιμὴν, τῷ θείῳ πυρὶ τῶν
ἀυτοῦ λόγων κατέφλεξε. Καὶ μὴ φέρων ὁ ἐχθρὸς διάβολος τὴν αὐτοῦ παῤῥησίαν καὶ ἔνστασιν ἐξώπλησε τοὺς αὐτοῦ ὑπουργοὺς πρὸς τὴν τούτου ἀναίρεσιν. Ὁ δὲ καὶ πρὸ τοῦ θανάτου τῆς ἀυτοῦ μαρτυριας, νέκρωσιν ζωηφόρον ἐνδυσάμενος, καὶ καθ᾽ ἑκάστην ἡμέραν νεκρὸν ἑαυτὸν λογιζόμενος, κατὰ τὸν θεῖον Ἀπόστολον Παῦλον, ξίφει τὴν ἱερὰν καὶ μακαρίαν κεφαλὴν ἀποτμηθεὶς, πρὸς Κύριον εξεδήμησε Χαίρων καὶ ἀγαλλόμενος. Which you may render thus in Latin.
[2] In the same month of June, on the twentieth day, the contest of the holy Hieromartyr Methodius Bishop of Patara. Methodius, Hieromartyr of Christ, from infancy consecrated himself to God, Elogium from the Menologium of Emperor Basil made an honorable vessel and receptacle of the divine Spirit: whence also by God's choice he was deemed worthy of the highest priesthood, and being made Bishop of the Church among the Pataraei, he excellently shepherded his flock. Wherefore, when he had seen the heresy of Origen growing strong, as a most excellent shepherd, with the divine fire of his discourses he burned it up. Whence the devil the enemy, not bearing this freedom and contention of his, arms his ministers for his slaying. But he, who even before this death to be undergone in his martyrdom had put on a life-giving mortification, and the Synaxarium of Constantinople. and according to the divine Apostle Paul had reckoned himself dead day by day; his sacred and blessed head having been cut off by the sword, departed to Christ rejoicing and exulting. The same things and in the same words, but afterwards amplified, we read in the very ancient Ms. Synaxarium of the Constantinopolitan Church, which belongs to the Parisian College of the Society of Jesus.
[3] The same things also we read in the printed Menaea: but these add some things, Another from a Ms. Synaxarium. which would be better omitted in the said Synaxarium and Menologium of Emperor Basil, perhaps to be transferred to another Methodius, in these words. This plainly admirable Priest and Martyr of God left behind books elaborated by himself, full of all knowledge and most useful. In the Menaea fabulous things are added, Moreover, he most clearly prophesied about future things, and most perspicuously foretold concerning the conversions, changes, and translations of Kings or kingdoms, the incursions of nations, the overturnings and devastations of regions and places, concerning catholic and heretical Kings, concerning the consummation of the world, concerning Antichrist and his kingdom and ruin, and concerning the ruin of all human flesh. or pertaining to others All these things this divine man most clearly prophesied. But Cardinal Bellarmine and Philip Labbe in their works on Ecclesiastical Writers judge such Revelations to have been supposititious and falsely attributed to this saint.
[4] St. Jerome On Ecclesiastical Writers, chapter 83, concerning Methodius, not of Patara but as it appears another, writes these things: Methodius, Bishop of Olympus in Lycia and afterwards of Tyre, of polished and well-composed speech, composed books against Porphyry, S. Methodius Bishop of Olympus, famous for his writings, and a Symposion of Ten Virgins, and on the Resurrection an excellent work against Origen, and against the same On the Pythoness and On Free Will. Also commentaries on Genesis and the Canticle of Canticles, and many other things which are commonly read. And finally in the last persecution, or as others affirm, under Decius and Valerian, he was crowned with martyrdom at Chalcis in Greece. Thus he. Socrates also, who lived in the same time as S. Jerome, but somewhat younger, in book 6 of his Ecclesiastical History chapter 13 undertook the defense of Origen; and impugns vile and obscure men, (as that slanderer calls them,) who through themselves cannot become famous, but try to catch fame from the censure of better men. This disease, he says, first afflicted Methodius Bishop of the city of Olympus in Lycia: then Eustathius, who for a brief space of time ruled the Antiochene Church.
[5] But both were most excellent, and have been entered into the Roman Martyrology; Eustathius on July XVI, different from the other: and Methodius Bishop of Olympus on September XVIII: from whom to constitute the S. Methodius Bishop of Patara, of whom we here treat, as different is entirely fitting, although this one also impugned Origen, unless this too has been wrongly inserted into his elogium, by those badly confusing both. The province of Asia, Lycia, is rather large, as one which contained twenty-eight episcopal cities, among which are Olympus toward Pamphylia, and far from there in middle Lycia Patara, where this S. Methodius is said to have died as its Bishop and Martyr. But another Methodius, Bishop of Olympus, seems to have been driven thence, to have fled to Tyre, and there to have administered the Episcopate, until he departed into Greece, and was crowned with martyrdom at Chalcis. That was an illustrious city, the chief of the island of Euboea, and is believed now to be called Negroponte together with the island itself. He was indeed an illustrious writer, about whom Maximus in his Scholia to the book of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy of Dionysius, chapter 6, in the seventh century brought forth these things: Read what against Origen on the Resurrection Methodius wrote, most holy Martyr and Bishop of the city Olympus of Lycia, which is also called Hadrianopolis. Meanwhile his books with Francis Combefis are ascribed to S. Methodius Bishop of Patara, as also in the title of the Oration on Simeon and Anna edited by Peter Pantinus, Dean of Brussels. And S. John Damascene, in oration 3 On Images, alleges the second Oration of S. Methodius Bishop of the Pataraei. So that either this one too must have composed some books, or an error crept in in the naming of the Episcopate, which Suidas followed, saying: Methodius, Bishop of Olympus in Lycia or of the Pataraei and afterwards of Tyre.
[6] Meanwhile by Genebrardus in the Greek Calendar on June XX is celebrated Methodius Bishop of Patara, the Martyr: and accustomed to be venerated on another day. and Molanus in the second and third edition of the Auctarium to Usuardus has these things: On the twentieth day, of the most sacred Martyr Methodius Bishop of Patara; and afterwards on September XVIII he set forth these words of Usuardus: The birthday of B. Methodius Bishop of Olympus in Lycia and afterwards of Tyre, who under Diocletian at Chalcis in Greece, as S. Jerome writes, was crowned with martyrdom. Let the reader observe, that very often in this vast work we have distinguished various Saints, blended by others into one and the same man. From Easterners I propose only Anastasius the monk Sinaite, who has been considered the same with Anastasius Archbishop of Antioch, whom I distinguished on April XXI: and because each was an Ecclesiastical Writer, I have endeavored to assign to each their own proper progeny. Whether the same could be done here I propose to men versed in monuments of this kind; that if they have more certain documents of making the distinction, or of asserting the identity, they should bring them forth, which I will gladly embrace on the day of September XVIII.
[7] At what time these two Martyrs fell, who shall define? S. Jerome prefers that S. Methodius, Bishop of Olympus, came down to the last persecution, raised under Diocletian, Time of martyrdom. he says by others to be affirmed to have suffered under Decius and Valerian, which can perhaps be said of S. Methodius Bishop of Patara. This being posited, I would much more doubt whether he had any dogmatic contention with Origen; since I do not see any one doubting of his doctrine up to the persecution of Decius; although his ordination to the Presbyterate was called into controversy, as if it had been done against the Canons, because he had unmanned himself, the Gospel about Eunuchs having been wrongly understood.