Porphyrius

ON ST. PORPHYRIUS, MARTYR,

From the Calendars, chiefly of the Greeks.

About the year 362.

Porphyrius, martyr. (S.)

BY J. S.

The Greeks in their Menæa and Menologies commemorate today St. Porphyrius, a martyr who had been a mime, The name of St. Porphyrius inscribed in the Martyrologies: of whom Baronius in the Roman Martyrology speaks thus: Likewise St. Porphyrius the mime, who, receiving baptism in jest before Julian the apostate, being suddenly changed by the power of God, professed himself being struck with the axe, is crowned with martyrdom. With these agree well enough what is read on this day in Sirleto's Menology, in the printed Menæa, and in the manuscript Synaxary which we received from Sirmond. These three monuments so agree with one another that it is enough to transfer hither one of them, Sirleto's Menology, which has thus: On the same day, the birthday of Blessed Porphyrius, of the mimes. Being ordered by Julian the apostate, on his own birthday, to disparage and mock the deeds of the Christians, when going down into the water he immersed himself, he cried out: Porphyrius is baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; and so coming up, clothed in white garments, and professing with a free voice that he was a Christian, being beheaded with the sword he obtained the crown of martyrdom. So that Menology, with the Menæa and the Synaxary; but not accurately enough, so far as it appears.

[2] More correctly is the cause of the martyrdom, and the martyrdom itself of St. Porphyrius, set out in the Basilian Menology, an elogium of the Saint, who suffered under Julian. where on the same day *The contest of the holy martyr Porphyrius* is announced, and an elogium is subjoined expressed in these words: Porphyrius the martyr flourished in the reign of Julian the apostate, whom, as he reclined at table, he had been wont to delight with jests and witticisms, practising the mimic art. But when he perceived that he, having abjured our Lord Jesus Christ, worshipped the idols and held them for gods, being kindled with divine zeal, he vehemently rebuked him before the whole senate, calling him a prevaricator, impious and wicked, and ungrateful toward God, who had conferred on him such great benefits and the empire. Wherefore Julian, blazing up, first cruelly tortured him with various and bitter torments; then so tore his whole body by beating it with scourges that his bones were laid bare. Finally he commanded the lictors to behead him. Having received this sentence, he was led bound to the place of execution, and being struck with the sword he fell asleep, having obtained for a temporal king an immortal one, and for corruptible delights eternal felicity. Thus far the Menology, whose account differs much from the preceding, and is at least more probable, though neither perhaps is altogether accurate. Each may have something of truth, if Porphyrius was a catechumen, or had resolved to embrace the Christian religion when he was ordered by Julian to mock the Christians' rites, or if he was suddenly touched by divine grace when he was preparing himself for that impious play. Thus St. Genesius the mime was converted and became a martyr, of whom we treated on the twenty-fifth of August. The place of the martyrdom is not expressed. But Julian obtained the empire toward the end of the year 361 in the East, and was not afterwards in the West. Therefore the martyrdom of St. Porphyrius took place in some city of the Eastern empire, perhaps Constantinople, and probably in the year 362.