Страдание святых священномучеников Ефрема, Василия, Евгения, Елпидия, Агафодора, Еферия и Капитона, бывших в различные времена епископами в Херсоне

In the sixteenth year of the reign of Diocletian, 1758, His Holiness Patriarch Hermon of Jerusalem sent many bishops to various countries and to various peoples to proclaim, following the example of the apostles, the word of God, and to preach Christ. Two of these bishops, Ephraim and Basil, came to the country of Tauros and here, in the city of Kherson, both worked for some time, preaching the true God to His ignorant people and enlightening those darkened by the darkness of Hellenic idolatry. Then Saint Ephrem, leaving the inhabitants of Kherson to Saint Basil, went to the Scythians who lived along the Danube, with his preaching he converted many there to Christ and, having endured enough sorrows and labors in the gospel of Christ, on the seventh day of March he was beheaded. Meanwhile, Saint Basil, exposing the error of the infidel people in Kherson and showing them the right path of salvation, aroused the people's anger: the wicked took him, beat him without mercy and expelled him from the city. Having retired to a certain mountain, he stayed in a cave; That mountain stood a hundred stadia from Kherson in 1759 and was called the Parthenon, which means: maiden, for on it there was a church and an idol of some Hellenic goddess - a maiden. While in that mountain, Saint Basil rejoiced in spirit that he was worthy to endure wounds and exile for the sake of Christ, mourned the destruction of human souls seduced by the devil, and with tears prayed to God for their conversion. Some time passed like this. One Kherson chief's only son died and was buried outside the city. With great sorrow, his parents sat at his tomb, mourning and crying; and night came, but they did not leave their son’s coffin. And then their dead son appears to them in a dream, saying: - Why are you mourning my death? You cannot take me from here alive, for our gods, soulless idols, invented by the demon to seduce and destroy people, cannot resurrect me. If you want to revive me, then ask that stranger who was beaten and expelled to pray for me to his God, and believe in the God he preaches: for He is the true God, who has power over the living and the dead, and is able to raise me from the dead alive through the prayers of the husband you insulted. Having awakened immediately, the parents told each other their vision and were very surprised that they both agreed with it. Joyfully they hurried to the city and told their friends about that vision. As soon as day came, they began to look everywhere for the man of God, and found him in the above-mentioned cave. The city chief and his household came to him, fell at his holy feet and begged him to resurrect his son. - How can I do this, being a sinful person? - the saint objected. “But you will receive what you ask for if you believe in the God I preach, Who alone is able to raise the dead from their graves.” “If we receive our son alive,” said the parents of the deceased young man, “we will do everything that you want and command with all our hearts.” Saint Basil of God, getting up, went with them to the tomb and, when they rolled away the stone from the tomb, he went inside, made the sign of the cross on the deceased and prayed to God for a long time; then he took water, blessed it and poured it on the dead man with the invocation of the Most Holy Trinity, in the likeness of holy Baptism. The dead man immediately came to life and began to speak, praising God. Fear and horror took possession of everyone who was there, and the parents were filled with unspeakable joy. Everyone fell at the feet of the saint, calling him great and recognizing the God he preached as true and omnipotent. They took the bishop of God, Saint Basil, and led him into the city with great honor. The ruler and his whole household believed in Christ and were baptized, and many of the people who saw this miracle joined the faithful. And the Church of Christ began to grow in Kherson, and the Greek unclean churches were gradually abolished. Seeing the desolation of their churches, the devil cried into the hearts of the Jews then living in Kherson, and they taught the Hellenes to rebel against the Christians, and mainly against their leader, Saint Basil, and to kill him. “If the teacher of Christians is killed, then Christianity will easily go bankrupt,” they said. Countless numbers of armed wicked people gathered: with noise and shouts, suddenly attacking the bishop of God, they took him out of the church, tied his legs and, surrounding him, dragged him through the city streets, beat him with daggers and stones and trampled underfoot. He was brought to the place where the Christians had erected a pillar topped with a cross; Here the saint of Christ gave up his holy soul to God, dying painfully on the same seventh day of March on which Saint Ephraim was beheaded by the sword in Scythia. The body of Saint Basil was taken outside the city gates and thrown to be devoured by dogs and birds. It lay for many days without burial, however, preserved by God, it remained unharmed; At night a bright star appeared over this suffering body, and a wolf, sitting nearby, guarded it from the dogs, and during the day an eagle hovered over the body, not allowing carnivorous birds to approach, until the Christians took it secretly at night and buried it with honor. After the murder of the holy Bishop Basil, one of his disciples went by sea to the countries of the Hellespont and found there three bishops Eugenius, Elpidius and Agathodorus, working in the gospel of Christ; They were sent to preach by His Holiness Hermon, Patriarch of Jerusalem, together with Saints Ephraim and Basil. Having found them there, the disciple told them about the death of Saint Basil, and they glorified God, who crowned His saint with a crown of suffering. After consulting with each other, the bishops boarded a ship and sailed to the city of Kherson, wanting to imitate Saint Basil. They preached Christ God in Kherson, and the number of faithful increased day by day. But just as the devil armed the Jews and Hellenes against Saint Basil; Having gathered in large numbers, they took the holy bishops, tied them up, dragged them through the streets, beat them with wood and stones, until the holy martyrs gave up their honest souls into the hands of their Lord. Their bodies were taken out of the city by the same gates that were usually used to bury the dead, and thrown outside without burial to be plundered by dogs and birds; but the Christians, secretly taking them, gave them an honest burial. The three holy bishops, Eugene, Elpidius and Agathodorus, suffered on March 7, a year after the murder of Saint Basil. A few years later, in the days of Constantine the Great, when he was already leaning toward Christianity, Bishop Epherius, also sent by the Patriarch of Jerusalem, came to Kherson. Seeing that the unfaithful people, with their cruelty and rage, did not allow Christianity to spread in Kherson, Epherius went to Byzantium to Tsar Constantine and brought a complaint against the wicked Kherson people who were oppressing Christians. The Tsar gave his permission to Christians to live in Kherson freely and unhindered and to create their cathedrals, for the glory of God, openly and without restraint, but he ordered all those who hinder Christians to be expelled from the city. With such royal will, Saint Epherius returned to Kherson and greatly rejoiced the flock of Christ, but the infidels were saddened and confused. Having built a Christian church in the city and given everything a good order, the bishop again went to the king to thank him for his good deed. On the way back, he fell ill and, having sailed to the island of Aasa, perceived the end of his temporary life and the beginning of eternal life. The faithful buried him and placed a pillar on his grave; tall trees that grew there indicated the saint’s grave from afar. The death of Saint Etherius followed on the seventh day of March, on which the previous bishops also died as martyrs. Christians mourned the deceased for a long time; Then they announced to Tsar Constantine about the death of their bishop and asked for another to take his place. Blessed Kapiton, bishop of the Kherson Church, was sent to replace Epherius, and the faithful joyfully received him. Also, a multitude of unfaithful people gathered; approaching the newly arrived bishop, they asked him for a miraculous sign to prove the correctness of his faith, so that they too could be confident. “It’s a miracle,” they said, “let it be like this: light a great fiery furnace, and a Christian bishop enter into it, and if he doesn’t burn and remains alive, then we will all be baptized.” Saint Capito, trusting in God, agreed to their desire and ordered the construction of a great furnace. When it was strongly heated, the holy bishop, with the general attention of the people, put on his omophorion 1760 and prayed to God with tenderness that He would reveal His Divine power, as He once did in the furnace of Babylon 1761 for the sake of reassuring the unfaithful people. After prolonged prayer and after the deacon cried out publicly: “Let us hear,” the saint entered the oven and stood in the flames for about an hour, praying and holding his hands outstretched to heaven, and did not receive any harm from the great flame of fire; then, having collected hot coals in his phelonion 1762, he went out unharmed to the people. Looking at this glorious miracle, everyone was filled with great surprise and fear; for they saw that even the saint’s clothes were not touched by fire and that his phelonion, full of burning coals, was not scorched. “There is one God,” the people cried with a loud voice and as if with one mouth, “the Christian God, great and strong, who kept His servant unscorched in the oven!” Then the whole of Kherson and that country accepted the Christian faith, having been convinced of its truth by a glorious miracle. This miracle was announced to the great Constantine and told to the holy fathers at the first Ecumenical Council, in Nicaea 1763, and everyone, glorifying God, marveled at the great faith of Saint Capito and his zeal for God. A few years later, Saint Kapito set off on a ship from Kherson to Constantinople; a storm arose, and the ship was washed by the waves at the mouth of the Dnieper River; there, unfaithful and godless people robbed the ship and captured everyone on it, and the bishop of God Kapiton himself was drowned in the water. He died as a martyr on the twenty-first day of December, but his memory is ranked among the former Kherson saints who suffered on the seventh day of March. His holy soul is united with those in heaven, and all seven bishops of God, bishops of Kherson, like the seven most important Angels 1764, together stand before the Most Holy Trinity, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the One God, glorifying Him with all the saints forever. Amen. A luminous day has arrived for the shepherds who episcopated brightly in Kherson, and we also sing the holiday of those who suffered for Christ’s sheep. Hieromartyrs, pray to the Chief Shepherd Christ and us to honor the right hand of the sheep, and let us cry out to you: Rejoice, holy fathers, who shed their blood for Christ. The Roman Emperor Diocletian reigned from 285 to 305. During the 18 years of his reign, he allowed Christians to openly confess their faith, and from 303 he began to persecute them, and with particular cruelty. Stage is a Greek measure of distance that had different meanings at different times. In the 3rd century AD the measure of the stage was 184.97 meters or 87 fathoms. Omophorion - an elongated cloth with the image of four crosses, placed on the shoulders and lowered in front and behind; Without the omophorion, the bishop cannot perform sacred acts. In a symbolic meaning - a lost sheep (humanity), saved from destruction by the Lord of the sheep (Lord). OK. 15:5. About the miraculous salvation of Hananiah, Azariah and Mishael from the fire - Dan. 3. Felony - the robe of a bishop and priest, round, sleeveless. The first Ecumenical Council took place in 325 and consisted of 318 bishops. He condemned the heresy of Arius, who taught that the Son of God is not equal to God the Father; at the same council the time for the celebration of Holy Easter was precisely determined. Their names are: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Salafiel, Jehudiel and Jeremiel. You might be interested in: