How Saint Amphilochios of Iconium Cleansed the Church of Arian Heretics

 

 By St. Justin Popovich

Saint Amphilochios shepherded the flock of Christ for many years, because his life extended until the reign of Theodosius the Great and his sons. As a teacher of the Orthodox faith, he fought against the heresy of Arius, he suffered many persecutions and tortures from heretics, he was a co-struggler of the Holy Fathers in the fight against the blasphemy of Eunomius, and at the Second Ecumenical Synod he fought a lot against the pneumatomachian Macedonius and supporter of the heresy of Arius. Because of such zeal for the faith and because of his highly virtuous life, Saint Amphilochios was celebrated everywhere and was loved by the Holy Fathers, especially by Saint Basil the Great and Saint Gregory the Theologian, who considered him a close friend and corresponded with him.

Saint Eustathios of Antioch as a Model for our Lives

St. Eustathios of Antioch (Feast Day - February 21)

By Protopresbyter Fr. George Papavarnavas

Saint Eustathios, Archbishop of Antioch, was born in Sidon of Pamphylia in 260 AD. In 320 he was elected Bishop of Beroea (Aleppo) in Syria, and after three years the Archbishop of Antioch. He took part in the proceedings of the First Ecumenical Synod, which convened in 325 at Nicaea in Bithynia and condemned the heresy of Arius.

He was in the front lines for the battle for Orthodoxy and a fellow-struggler of Athanasios the Great, who called him "a man who is a confessor". That is why he was envied by the leading followers of Arius, namely the Bishops Eusebius of Nicomedia, Theognis of Nicaea and Eusebius of Caesarea, and was slandered as an underminer of secular authority, and as unethical, therefore he was exiled. In other words, they claimed that he was attacking the mother of the Emperor Constantine, namely Saint Helen, but also that he had an illegitimate child with a woman of loose morals, whom they bribed to accuse him. Thus they managed to exile him, but God protected him and finally glorified him. A result of his flawless life and his painful struggles for the Orthodox faith, was that his flock was not seduced by heresy.

Homilies on the Ecumenical Synods - The First Ecumenical Synod (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

 

 Homilies on the Ecumenical Synods

The First Ecumenical Synod (325 A.D.)

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

In this years short sermons for the Sundays of Summer, beloved brethren, I will refer to the Ecumenical Synods of our Church, and especially to the dogmatic issues which our Holy Fathers who comprised of them dealt with these. Orthodox Christians must know our Orthodox faith.

Of course, these issues are big and serious and they cannot be adequately analyzed in short eucharistic sermons, but we will highlight some of the key points of some of the decisions of the Ecumenical Synods that Orthodox Christians must know. This is, in other words, a small study, and those who are interested will be able to interest themselves in gaining more information.

The First Ecumenical Synod was convened in Nicaea of Bithynia, in the year 325 AD, by Constantine the Great. The presidents of the Synod were Eustathios of Antioch and Alexander of Alexandria, and perhaps Saint Kordouis.

Homily on the Sunday of the 318 Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Synod (St. Luke of Simferopol)

By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

(Delivered May 25, 1947)

On the Sunday before the great day of Pentecost, the Holy Church celebrates the memory of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Synod.

We need to know what an Ecumenical Synod is and what the significance of the First Ecumenical Synod was.

The holy apostles told the bishops to hold an Ecclesiastical Synod, that is, a conference of bishops, who together had to decide on the affairs of the Church. It was decided that such Synods should be convened frequently, twice a year. This is how it was done, and such local Synods were convened to resolve not very important issues.

Life of Our Holy Father Meletios, Archbishop of Antioch

St. Meletios of Antioch (Feast Day - February 12)

 

The holy Meletius was a member of one of the noblest families of Lesser Armenia and was born in the city of Melitene. Renowned for his piety and meek demeanor, he was elected to the see of Sebastea in the year 357, but met with such violent opposition that he departed his diocese and made his abode in the desert, later retiring to the town of Beria in Syria.

Eudoxus, Archbishop of Antioch, [1] a proponent of the Arian heresy, was attracted by the wealth of the see of Constantinople and wished to transfer thither. His opportunity came when the infamous heretic Macedonius, [2] who had hitherto held the position of archpastor in Constantinople, was expelled. During the reign of Constantius, [3] son of the holy Emperor Constantine the Great, the Church of Constantinople abounded in great treasures and was far richer than the Church of Antioch and the others. Hence, Eudoxus, disdaining the see of Antioch, began to covet the see of Constantinople. But the inhabitants of Antioch, learning of the intrigues of their archbishop, were greatly offended, incensed against him because he had spurned his own Church, and for this cause they drove him from their midst. And betaking himself to Constantinople, Eudoxus indeed did manage to obtain the cathedra of that city.

Saint Maximus III, Patriarch of Jerusalem

St. Maximus of Jerusalem (Feast Day - May 9)

According to Sozomen, Saint Maximus was a confessor of the persecution against Christians by the Emperor Diocletian, and was condemned to work in the mines, after having first deprived him of his right eye, and the use of his left leg.

Maximus was so popular among the people for his good character and for being a confessor that when Saint Macarius the Bishop of Jerusalem attempted to appoint him as Bishop of Lydda (also known as Diospolis) the populace insisted upon his retention in Jerusalem. Upon Macarius' death Maximus became Bishop of Jerusalem in 333, and was present in 335 at the first Synod of Tyre, and signed that synod's condemnation of Saint Athanasius, which he later realized he was deceived into doing.

A Letter of Basil the Great to Ambrose of Milan (Letter 197)

Relic of St. Dionysius of Milan

In 374-5 Saint Ambrose of Milan sent a deputation of clerics to Saint Basil the Great to ask for the body of Saint Dionysius (May 25), who was Bishop of Milan from 349 to 355. Saint Dionysius was exiled to Caesarea of Cappadocia for not submitting to the Arian faith by Roman Emperor Constantius II. Dionysius died in exile between 360 and 362. In his Letter 197, Saint Basil assures Saint Ambrose that the relic of the Martyr is his authentic relic, which had been kept with honors by the Orthodox locals. Furthermore, he elaborately praises Ambrose and encourages him to continue his fight against Arianism. It is believed by some that this is a forged letter dating to the 12th century to account for an earlier date of the translation of the relics of St. Dionysius to Milan.

Did the Cross of Christ Expose and Kill Arius?

According to the historian Socrates, when Helen the mother of Emperor Constantine discovered the True Cross, she left a portion of the Cross in Jerusalem, enclosed in a silver case, as a memorial to those who might wish to see it. "The other part she sent to the emperor, who being persuaded that the city would be perfectly secure where that relic should be preserved, privately enclosed it in his own statue, which stands on a large column of porphyry in the forum called Constantine's at Constantinople. I have written this from report indeed; but almost all the inhabitants of Constantinople affirm that it is true" (Eccl. Hist. 1, 17). From this report therefore we are informed that a portion of the True Cross was placed by Emperor Constantine in the Porphyry Column in the Forum of Constantinople for the protection of the city.

Saint Alexander, Patriarch of Alexandria (+ 326)

St. Alexander of Alexandria (Feast Day - May 29)

Verses

I reverence the august end of Alexander,
I know as august Alexander the Pope.

Little is known of Alexander’s early life. He is thought to have been born about the year 250, probably in Alexandria. As a priest he experienced the persecutions of Christians under the emperors Galerius and Maximinus. Upon the repose of Archbishop Achillas of Alexandria in 313, he came to lead the Church of Alexandria as the thirteenth Pope in succession since the Apostle Mark.

Alexander was faced with three significant issues upon his elevation. These were the dating of Pascha, the efforts of Meletius of Lycopolis to undermine him, and Arianism.

A schismatic sect, led by Erescentius, disputed the timing of the date for Pascha. While the controversy was not fully settled until the decision of the First Ecumenical Synod in 325, Alexander prepared a special treatise that defused the issue until the Synodal decision in which he cited the earlier statements of Dionysius on the matter.

Holy Martyrs of North Africa Who Suffered by the Vandals During the Paschal Liturgy (+ 459)

Holy Martyrs of North Africa Who Suffered by the Vandals During the Paschal Liturgy
(Feast Day - April 5)

In the year 459, Easter Sunday fell on April 5th. The Orthodox Church in North-West Africa was then suffering persecution from the Vandals; they were Arians, and had been brought into the country by their kings, Genseric and Hunneric. The following took place in the city of Regia, as recorded by Victor Vitensis in his History of the Vandal Persecution (Bk. 1, Ch. 42-43).

Holy Martyrs Victorian, Frumentius and Companions (+ 484)

Sts. Victorian, Frumentius and Companions (Feast Day - March 23)

Victorian, proconsul of Carthage, a native of Hadrumetum, was one of the wealthiest men in North Africa, and had held several important offices under Hunneric, the Vandal king, son of Genseric. Hunneric, being resolved to trample out the faith in the Godhead of Christ, and establish the Arian heresy throughout his dominion, offered Victorian the highest honors, and his own special favor, if he would regard Christ as a creature.

Victorian replied, "Nothing can separate me from the faith and love of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the confidence that I have in so mighty a master, I am ready to suffer all kinds of torments rather than to consent to Arian impiety. You may burn me or expose me to wild beasts, or kill me by other tortures; but never will you prevail on me to desert the Church in which I was baptized." This reply so exasperated the tyrant that he made the Saint undergo the worst and most protracted torments his ingenuity could devise. Victorian endured them all with a good courage, and gained the martyr's crown.

Saint Barsos the Confessor, Bishop of Edessa

St. Barsos of Edessa (Feast Day - October 15)

Verses

Do not overlook the bed of Barsos,
Which gushes forth healing grace.

By Theodoret

(Ecclesiastical History, Bk. 4, Ch. 14)

Barsos, whose fame is now great not only in his own city of Edessa, and in neighboring towns, but in Phoenicia, in Egypt, and in the Thebaid, throughout which regions he had traveled with a high reputation won by his great virtue, had been relegated by Valens to the island of Aradus, but when the emperor learned that innumerable multitudes streamed there, because Barsos was full of apostolic grace, and drove out sicknesses with a word, he sent him to Oxyrhynchus in Egypt; but there too his fame drew all men to him, and the old man, worthy of heaven, was led off to a remote castle near the country of the barbarians of that district, by name Pheno. It is said that in Aradus his bed has been preserved to this day, where it is held in very great honor, for many sick persons lie down upon it and by means of their faith recover.

Saint Dionysius, Bishop of Milan (+ c. 360)

St. Dionysius of Milan (Feast Day - May 25)

Almost nothing is known about the life of Dionysius before his election as Bishop of Milan, which took place in 349. Dionysius was probably of Greek origin. He was a friend of the Roman Emperor Constantius II before being elected Bishop of Milan.

Holy Hieromartyr Potamon, Bishop of Heraclea (+ 341)

St. Potamon of Heraclea (Feast Day - May 18)

Saint Potamon was Bishop of Heraclea, or Hieracleopolis, in Egypt. During the reign of Maximinus Daia, when the Christians were being persecuted in 310, he was imprisoned for his Christian faith, and had his eye plucked out and probably, according to Rufinus, the sinews of his ham severed, then condemned to the mines. Released from prison when Christianity became tolerated, he returned to his flock where he was revered as a Confessor.

Saint Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers

St. Hilary of Poitiers (Feast Day - January 13)

The holy Hierarch Hilary was born of pagan parents in Gaul, and was trained in philosophy and rhetoric and a high level of Greek. At a time when paganism was still strong in Gaul, Saint Hilary understood the falsehood of polytheism after studying the Old and New Testament writings, with the result that he abandoned his Neo-Platonism for Christianity, and with his wife and his daughter (traditionally named Saint Abra), was baptized and received into the Church.

About the year 350 he was ordained Bishop of Poitiers, when Arles and Milan were in the hands of the Arians and the Arian Constantius was sole Emperor. Like his contemporary Saint Athanasius, Saint Hilary's episcopate was one long struggle against the Arians. As Bishop of Poitiers, Saint Hilary foresaw the future greatness of Saint Martin (Nov. 12), and attached him to himself. In 355, when required to agree to the condemnation of Saint Athanasius passed by the Synod of Milan, Hilary wrote an epistle to Emperor Constantius convicting the wrongs done by the Arians and requesting, among other things, the restoration of the Orthodox bishops, including Athanasius. For this, Hilary was banished to Asia Minor, where he wrote his greatest work, On the Trinity.

Holy Martyrs Dionysia, Dativa, Emilianus, Boniface, Leontia, Tertius and Majoricus (+ 484)

Victor of Vita was a fifth century African bishop of the Province of Byzacena (called Vitensis from his See of Vita). He wrote a work titled A History of the African Province Persecution, in the Times of Genseric and Huneric, the Kings of the Vandals. This is mainly a contemporary narrative of the cruelties practiced against the Orthodox Christians of Northern Africa by the Arian Vandals. In this book he records the story of the Holy Martyrs Dionysia, Dativa, Emilianus, Boniface, Leontia, Tertius and Majoricus, who are commemorated on December 6th according to the Roman Martyrology. He writes:

At a time when those bishops had not yet been sent into exile, he [Huneric] sent simultaneously through all the provinces of the land of Africa most cruel torturers, so that there did not remain a single home or place free of wailing and lamentations. They did not spare people of any age or either sex, except those who submitted to their will. Some were tortured by being beaten, others by being hung, and others by the fire; contrary to the laws of nature, women, especially the noble, were tortured entirely naked and in full view of the public.

Synaxarion of Saint Amphilochios of Iconium

St. Amphilochios of Iconium (Feast Day - November 23)

Verses

Make ready Amphilochios the vestments of death,
You scatter those lying in wait and dead you perceive with the mind.
On the twenty-third Amphilochios received death.

This Saint, having passed through every stage of ecclesiastical office, and shined in asceticism and divine knowledge, proceeded to become the Bishop of Iconium by the election of God and the common people, during the reigns of Valentinian and Valens. He flourished during the reign of Constantine the Great as well as that of his sons, and became a hierarch in the year 374. Having therefore become a teacher of the Orthodox faith, the renowned one bravely stood against the heresies of Arius and Macedonius and Eunomius. For this reason he endured many persecutions and tribulations from the impious. He was also a fellow-struggler with the one hundred and fifty Fathers of the Second Ecumenical Synod, who assembled together in the year 381 against Macedonius the Pneumatomach.* Since Theodosius the Great gave authority over the western territories of Europe to the young Valentinian, having trampled on the tyrant Maximinus, then the great Amphilochios returned to Constantinople, and approaching the emperor he asked him to banish the Arians. In prevailing upon him with supplications, by this the wondrous Father found a mechanism by which he could persuade the emperor.

Holy Hieromartyr Paul the Confessor, Archbishop of Constantinople (+ 350)

St. Paul the Confessor of Constantinople (Feast Day - November 6)

Verses

Paul who was strangled at the throat became a boast,
Releasing those who choke and are drowning from the currents.
Wherefore on the sixth Paul confesses God and is strangled.

Saint Paul was from Thessaloniki. He became the secretary of Alexander, Patriarch of Constantinople (Aug. 30), ordained a deacon and presbyter, and then became the successor of Saint Alexander in about 337 as Patriarch. When Patriarch Alexander lay on his deathbed, the sorrowing faithful asked him who he would have follow him as the chief shepherd of the spiritual flock of Christ. He said: "If you desire a shepherd who will teach you and who will shine with virtues, choose Paul; but if you only want a suitable man, externally adorned, choose Macedonius." The people chose Paul.

The Confession of Thomas and the Blasphemy of Arius (St. John Chrysostom)

By St. John Chrysostom

(Excerpt from his Homily on the Holy Apostle Thomas)

How do I respond in reality, where will I find the word of passage? Shall I preach Thomas as being alive? But the tomb proclaims his death. Shall I relate that he is dead? I am by circumstances compelled. He is dead, and immortal, and died as a man, and hastens about the world as an angel, and accepted his passion, and cuts apart the passions, and is buried below, and above rejoices. Therefore it was not possible for him to be hidden, neither for him to disappear somewhere, for he enlightened the whole world. The grave received him, but everywhere he shines like the sun, the earth conquered the relics of the righteous one, and revealed them as wider than all creation, for his grace is sowed throughout the whole world. Every corner place has Thomas, he has filled the whole world, and remains whole in his place. His glory has gone out into all the earth, and to the ends of the earth his trophies.

Holy Martyrs Medimnos, Urban, Theodore with Eighty Priests and Deacons Burnt in a Ship by Order of Emperor Valens (+ 370)

Sts. Medimnos, Urban, Theodore and 80 Prists and Deacons (Feast Day - September 5)

Verses

To Medimnos.

Entering the water and fire singing psalms,
Medimnos said, "I arrive refreshed."

To Urban and Theodore.

Urban together with the great Theodore,
Accomplish the contest with Medimnos.

To the Eighty Priests and Deacons.

Eight times ten of the consecrated,
Go to the fire and water strong and steadfast.