ON SAINT ACHILLIUS,
BISHOP OF LARISSA IN THESSALY.
ABOUT 330.
CommentaryAchillius, Bishop of Larissa in Thessaly (S.)
G. H.
Larissa, the metropolis of Thessaly, which from that Province was also called Larissena, among the ancient Bishops had S. Achillius, inscribed in various Greek calendars on the XV day of May. A eulogy from the Menology of the Emperor Basil. The Menology of the Emperor Basil Porphyrogenitus adorns him with this eulogy. Achillius the Wonder-Worker flourished under the Empire of Constantine the Great. He was the son of Christian parents, taught piety by these, and instructed in the discipline of the external sages, then also diligently cultivated in the meditation of divine Scripture, and adorned with elegant speech and due virtue, was initiated Archbishop of the city of Larissa. Afterwards, on account of many things happily done, and miracles wrought, having obtained an illustrious name, together with the divine Fathers he was present at the Council of Nicaea against Arius the heretic. But when for the orthodox doctrine he had strenuously contended, and had vanquished the heretics, he excited the admiration of all. Returning afterwards from Nicaea to his See, when he had performed many miracles, and raised great and very many temples to the glory of God and the Saints, full of joy he migrated to the Lord. These things in the Menology of the Emperor Basil. another from a MS. Synaxary I subjoin another from a MS. Greek Synaxary of the Church of Constantinople, preserved at Paris in the Clermont College of the Society of Jesus.
[2] On the same day the memory of our Holy Father Achillius the Wonder-Worker, Metropolitan of the city of Larissa. He lived in the age of Constantine the Great, born and educated of pious parents: by whom taught singular piety with the external disciplines and the heavenly philosophy, he cultivated his mind with all virtues together. Then he was proclaimed Archbishop of second Thessaly among the Larissaeans by the peoples of all Greece. Summoned also to the great Synod of Nicaea, he contended against Arius and his followers, and condemned them with anathema. But returning to Larissa, he overthrew very many shrines of idols, and drove the demons from the bodies of men: and when he had built very many sacred temples from the foundations and adorned them with every worship, he himself, very many other miracles being wrought, passed his life in peace. Thus there, which almost the same things are read in the printed Menaea, and in Maximus the Bishop of Cythera, and it is added that he labored in the said Nicene Council with the other Fathers even to the end. and in the Menaea. That was held in the year 325, so that he seems to have lived at least up to the year 330. Of the same Ferrarius makes mention in the General Catalogue. To the eulogy in the printed Menaea is prefixed a distich, affirming the fame of the miracles, and alluding to the name of the city Λαρίσσα and Λαλεῖν to speak.
Λαλεῖ Λάρισσα σὰς ἀριστείας ξένας, Μνήμην ἔχουσα καὶ θανόντος σου, Πάτερ.
Larissa speaks the wonders of thy virtue, Commemorating thee even buried, Father.