Страдание святых мучеников Агафопода и Феодула

During the reign of the wicked Roman emperors Diocletian and Maximian 2394, two godly servants of the Church of God, Agathopods and Theodulus, lived in Thessalonica 2395. Agathopod was a deacon, was already of advanced age and led a chaste life. Theodulus was a reader. The son of pious Christian parents, he was young and handsome in face and led an immaculate life. Theodulus had three brothers according to the flesh: Capiton, Metrodorus and Philostorgius, who led the same pious life as himself. Blessed Theodulus, even before his suffering feat, received from God the guarantee that he would be granted the crown of martyrdom. While resting one night, Theodulus, in a sleepy vision, intended to receive a certain thing into his hand from a certain respectable man. Having awakened from sleep, Theodul actually found in his hand a very beautiful, unknown of what made, ring with a seal bearing the image of the Holy Cross. This was a sign of the suffering of Saint Theodulus for Christ, our God, who suffered for us on the Cross. The holy young man Theodulus subsequently healed all sorts of illnesses between people with this ring. Whoever he met among the sick, having this ring with him, the sickness immediately left the sufferer and he became healthy, so that even many Hellenes, seeing this, turned to Christ. When the above-mentioned pagan kings launched a persecution against Christians, they sent out their orders everywhere - to force all people to worship the work of human hands - idols, and not to worship the One God, the Creator of all 2396. This kind of royal order also came to Thessalonica, where the instruments of torment prepared for those who did not obey the royal command 2397 were put on display for everyone. Many of the believers fled from here, trying to hide wherever they could; others courageously gave themselves up to torture and, finally, others, being cowardly and weak, fearing torture and death, went over to the side of the pagans and ate idolatrous sacrifices with the latter, thus preferring the real vain life to the immortal life. But they, avoiding short-term torment, thereby prepared for themselves eternal death and destruction. The devil rejoiced at such, but with the magnanimous and courageous warriors of Christ he was always defeated and put to shame, as for example by these two saints Agathopods and Theodulus. These latter, during the fierce persecution that ensued, did not run away, did not hide, but remained incessantly in the house of God, day and night praying to God for His holy Church, which was subjected to such disasters, and day and night waiting for the beginning of their suffering. Indeed, when the pagan warriors found out about the saints, they immediately grabbed them and threw them into prison. At that time, Favstinus was the leader of Thessalonica. Having sat down in his judicial seat, he ordered the confessors of Christ, Agathopods and Theodulus, to be brought to him for interrogation. As if invited to a feast, they went joyfully, holding each other’s hands and courageously exclaiming: When the saints appeared before the court of the tormentor, he, wanting first of all to catch the younger one with his seductions, ordered everyone to leave and Agathopod to be taken to another place. Then, calling Theodulus closer to him, he affectionately said to him: - Humble yourself, young man, I beg you, reject your new false Christian teaching and begin to fulfill the laws and customs established by antiquity, if you do not want to end your life in torment. Saint Theodulus answered him: “I have long abandoned delusion and deception, and I fear for you, so devoted to vanity, so that you do not suffer eternal death.” The judge was not offended by these words of the saint, but again began to tempt him in every possible way to begin making sacrifices to idols, promising him gifts and honors. A priest of Zeus 2398, named Xenos, who was nearby, said to the saint: - If honors and gifts do not convince you to make a sacrifice, then let torment convince you to obey the royal commands! “The horrors of torment will never be able to intimidate me,” the martyr answered the priest, “and will never persuade me to fulfill your will.” To the words of the speaker, then Favstinus, that an honorable life is better than a painful death, Saint Theodulus answered: – Indeed, I realize that life is better than death, and that is why I decided in my mind to despise this earthly and short-term life, so that I could become a participant in immortal life and eternal heavenly blessings. So, torture me with wounds and fire, and you will see that my tormented body is subject to corruption and death, but my rational soul, being incorruptible, after torment will immediately be freed from the bonds of the body and will have fun in endless life. “I beg you,” the judge continued, “tell me, Who will give you those great benefits, out of love for Whom you have decided to despise torture and death itself?” “God,” answered Saint Theodulus, “who determined everything by the laws of nature, and His Son, Christ, the Word of the Father (cf. John 1ff.), by whose cross I have been marked since my infancy; I will not leave this sign for the rest of my life and would rather agree to lose my body through torment than to renounce this sign of Christ. I am a faithful servant of my Lord, and you will not defeat me with either fire or iron! Hegemon Favstin, amazed at the courage and boldness of the holy young man Theodulus, ordered him to be taken away from himself to a separate place. Then, calling Saint Agathopods to him, he said to him: - Bow down to our gods! So Theodulus, who was also deceived, now made a promise to bow to them and make a sacrifice with us. Realizing the cunning and deception of the hegemon, Saint Agathopod said to him: “And I will gladly make a sacrifice to the true God and His Son Jesus Christ, for Theodulus promised to bring a favorable sacrifice to Him, and not to any other god.” - No, Theodul promised to bring his sacrifice not to this God, but to the twelve gods 2399 who contained the entire universe. Saint Agathopod answered him with a smile: – Why do you call gods what is made by a master from perishable material? Can those be gods who are made by the hands of people who worship their creation as if they were the best and most perfect beings? Are they gods who cannot resist those who want to overthrow and break them and cannot defend themselves with anything - who do not see with their eyes, do not walk with their feet and do not have a single feeling in themselves? Are they gods about whom the Greeks say that they have a living soul and indulge in all sorts of disgusting fornications; and now the craftsmen who made their statues sell them for one silver coin or for four small copper coins? After all this, can I give the honor due to an omnipotent God to your unworthy and vile gods? Can I sing praises and songs before your deaf idols? When the saint spoke such speeches, the pagan leaders around him were afraid that the words of Agathopoda and all the other Christians brought for interrogation would be confirmed in the faith. Therefore, they ordered Agathopods to be immediately taken away with Theodulus to prison. While the saints were being led into prison, a huge crowd of people followed them. Some of the crowd, pitying the youth of Saint Theodulus, tried with many flattering speeches to shake his faith in Christ. Others, looking at the venerable gray hair of Agathopod, said, turning to him: - Agathopod! Do you really have a childish mind, and you don’t understand what is useful for your life? But the saints walked on without answering all the words addressed to them. When they reached the prison, they humbly prayed to God here and joined the number of prisoners held here for various crimes. At midnight the saints were strengthened by divine visions and were cheerful in spirit, joyfully praising Jesus Christ. After this, having washed their faces and hands cleanly with water and bowed their knees and heads to the ground, they offered up the following consonant prayer to God, calling out as if with one mouth: - God! The Creator and Provider of everything, who created this visible world, established the constant flow of the heavenly lights so that the sun located between them would enlighten everything during the day and contribute to the growth of earthly fruits, and the moon would dispel the darkness of the night with its radiance. - God! You, who gave the earth the ability to produce animals, the depths of the sea fish and showed the birds a place in the air; - God! You, who commanded the sea to serve with its gifts the man created by You. You, who commanded the birds to fill the air with their singing, You, who commanded the earth to grow in abundance various fruits for the needs of man, so that through the lips of people she would send thanks and praise to You - to You, the ruler of the whole world. God! You did not want our lawless race, who had departed from Your commandments and given over to all sin, to finally perish; You did not allow the devil to completely blind and drag a rational creature with him into eternal destruction, but having consigned the sins of people to oblivion, You, solely by Your mercy, sent down from heaven Your Only Begotten Son to people, so that He, having taken upon Himself human nature, united His immortality with our mortal nature and so that, always being with You, Your Word, through Whom everything happened, again returned those who were lost in untruths to the path of truth. You, with Your Son and Your Holy Spirit, providing for the universe with Your glorious miracles, led people who were previously wicked to Your holy faith. You, the Son of God with the Father and the Holy Spirit, having defeated the laws of nature and death, raised up Lazarus of the Four Days with Your word (John 11:1-44). You, by putting clay on the eyes, enlightened a man who was blind from birth (John 9:1-38), just as you granted quick healing to the bleeding woman who touched Your garment (Matthew 9:20-22), - just as you made a paralytic healthy, commanding him to carry his bed (Matthew 9:2-8). So, now You, O God, show us mercy, strengthen us with Your power from above, so that we, having courageously endured, with Your help, all the torments that the wicked will subject us to, may be able to achieve the Kingdom of Heaven. While the saints were praying in these words, their fellow prisoners held with them in prison, imprisoned here for murder or adultery, overcoming the fear of bodily death, hastily fell at the feet of the saints, asking them for forgiveness of their sins and the salvation of their souls from eternal death. The people who were outside the prison at that time, breaking down the prison doors, entered the prison and listened with tenderness to the words spoken by the servants of God. This was noticed by the zealous servant of the devil, the Thessalonian chief judge Eupsychius, who hastily ran to the military leader and told him that if the two Christians kept in prison were not executed immediately, then many of the people would abandon serving idols. The commander was inflamed with anger and immediately sent soldiers to bring the young man and the old man to him. And the servants of Christ were immediately presented before the unrighteous judge. Looking at Saint Theodulus, the military leader asked him: “Don’t you know that you must carry out the orders of the kings who rule the universe?” “What the Lord of heaven and earth commands,” Saint Theodulus answered him, “is truly just and worthy of attentive listening and immediate execution.” What your temporary kings command, of their commands you should fulfill only those that turn out to be fair and not contrary to the heavenly Creator, but unjust commands should in no case be fulfilled. After this, the military commander Favstin asked the saint: - Tell me, who created the sky? – He was created by God Almighty and the Son of God, Jesus Christ, Who is the Father’s Word. “Isn’t this the same one,” asked Favstinus, “whom the Jews crucified, handing over to the most cruel tortures?” “Yes, this is the One whom the Jews crucified,” answered the martyr. “He voluntarily deigned to suffer for us, then by the power of His Divinity he rose from the dead and was seen ascending, as the conqueror of death, into heaven, from where he will come again to expose and judge the unbelievers. “Why don’t you want,” Favstin asked him again, “to make sacrifices to our gods?” “Isn’t it better,” answered the saint, “to offer sacrifice to Him by Whom the makers of idols were created, than to offer it to these idols?” Truly the Creator is better than the creation! Then the military commander Favstin ordered that the clothes of the holy youth Theodulus be stripped off and exposed for torture. At the same time the herald shouted loudly: - Make a sacrifice to the gods, and you will be freed! But the martyr said to the tormentor: “You take away the clothes from my body, but you will never be able to take away the faith that I have in my God.” While the saint spoke so boldly, despised torment and repeatedly condemned the tormentors, the military leader ordered that before the eyes of Theodul, those who were originally Christians, but, being overcome by torment, worshiped idols, should sacrifice to idols. Looking at this spectacle, Saint Theodulus’s heart ached for those defeated by the pagans and those who had fallen away from the truth, and he said to the military leader: “You have defeated the weak, but in no case will you be able to defeat the strong warriors of Christ, even if you invent even greater torments!” Know, military leader, that the torment you have prepared for us now is insignificant and worthy of laughter. Invent more severe ones, so that you may know what our faith and love for God are. After this, the military leader ordered Theodulus to bring Christian books to the trial. But the saint answered him: “If I knew that you, having learned the vanity of idolatry, would reject it and wish to be established in true piety, then I would bring you prophetic and apostolic books. But since I notice that you are thinking evil, for this reason I will not transfer God’s gift into your hands. “If you do not immediately fulfill my command,” answered Favstinus, “then I will not spare you, I will tear your body into pieces and throw it out to be devoured by wild beasts.” “Here, my body is being given over for torment,” the saint continued, “do with it what you want; torture me in the most cruel way, but still I will not give the holy books to be desecrated by the wicked! Wanting then to intimidate the martyr, the military leader ordered him to be taken to the place of beheading with a sword, assuming that at the sight of his imminent death the saint would be afraid and submit to his will. And so, when the saint was brought to the place designated for beheading and saw a naked sword raised towards himself, he cried out to God in the following words: - Glory to Thee, God, Father of my Lord, who deigned to suffer for us! It is by His grace that I come to You, joyfully dying for You! Having said this, he bowed his head under the sword, but was not beheaded. The military commander, noticing that Saint Theodulus wanted a kind of solemn crown for himself, prepared to be beheaded with a sword, ordered him to be returned unharmed, and at that time he himself interrogated Saint Agathopod. He asked him: – What is your way of life? “The same,” answered the saint, “as with Theodulus.” “What do you have in common with Theodulus,” asked the military leader, “aren’t you connected by kinship?” “We are not relatives in the flesh,” answered Saint Agathopod, “but we are united by faith and convictions, and insofar as we differ in kinship, we are united in spirit.” Then the commander said: “I notice that you are both hastening towards the same torment - your speeches reveal this,” the military leader said to these words of the saint. Saint Agathopod responded to this: – If we free ourselves from this life through the same torment, then we will be honored with the same reward from our God! “Aren’t you ashamed,” said Favstinus, “now an old man,” to delude yourself as a youth and voluntarily surrender to obvious death? “I am not at all deluded,” answered Saint Agathopod, “and I do not suffer damage from the hope in my Christ; on the contrary, if I am old in years, then I must show all the more zeal in serving my God; and I praise Theodulus, who stood so courageously in his youth for the veneration of our One True God. Looking at Theodulus at that moment, the military leader Favstinus said, turning to him: - Young man! Do not be deceived by the words of this old man; do not recklessly commit yourself to death. He is already an old man: it is not surprising, therefore, that he wishes to die; But you, being young and still so young, why do you want to lose this sweet life in vain? Saint Theodulus answered him: “Don’t assume that I am weaker than the old man and cannot endure the same torments as him.” Although I am a young man in years, nevertheless, I equally with the old man recognize the One God, the Creator of all that exists, and together with the old man I am ready to suffer for Him. After the saints finished their speech, they, at the command of the tormentor, were tied up and again taken to prison. Meanwhile, the saints praised God, with whose help they defeated the devil. Their friends gathered around them and surrounded them with tears. “Why have you gathered here,” Saint Theodulus asked them, “and what are you crying about?” “We are crying about your misfortune,” they answered. “Why are you,” answered the smiling saint, “instead of crying about your own misfortunes, cry about our misfortunes, which lead us to the better.” While the saint was saying this, a warrior sent by the military commander came to the prison, who, having tied both saints with iron chains, imprisoned them in the inner compartment of the prison and locked them here so that no one would come to them. Meanwhile, as late evening approached, the holy martyrs prayed to God that He would completely strengthen them in their feat, and they fell asleep. Our Lord Jesus Christ, who provides for His saints, sent them in a dream the same vision (since they remained unanimous and like-minded) regarding the death that was about to befall them. This vision was as follows: it seemed to the saints that they both entered the same ship filled with many people and found themselves with the ship in the middle of the sea; the ship rocked from side to side, as the sea was agitated by a strong storm; crushed and broken by the waves, the ship was already plunging into the water, and some of the people who were with them on the ship drowned, others swam, others approached the rocks and died. Meanwhile, the saints saw themselves, by the control of the helmsman, being delivered from drowning, dressed in Light clothes and attached to some high mountain along which they ascended to heaven. Having awakened from sleep, the saints retold each other the vision and were surprised that they both had the same vision. From this they understood that they would both be given one grace from Christ, namely, that they would save themselves by crossing the sea of ​​martyrdom, in which many had drowned, and would ascend to heaven to receive eternal reward. After this vision, the hope and hope of the saints strengthened even more, and they, in ardent gratitude to their good Helmsman - God, fell on their faces and exclaimed: “Who ever expected such a good deed, which You, O God, granted to us for the sake of Your Son incarnate, our Lord Jesus Christ?! Who is so unreasonable that, contemplating Your great benefits to the human race, he would prefer virtue to a vain life? Who is as hasty for good deeds as Your Son, Who revealed to us in a vision that His grace was to be poured out on us, and also showed us the crowns with which we will be crowned, and through this strengthened us for the feat ahead of us!” When they prayed in this way until the morning and sent thanks to God, with the onset of day the prison guard came to them, informing them that Theodulus and Agathopoda were being summoned by the military commander. Fencing themselves with the sign of the cross, they left the prison in chains and followed the soldiers. Many of their acquaintances gathered there began to cry for them, realizing that they were already facing death. Saint Theodulus with a bright face turned to the mourners and said: – If you cry out of love for us, then you should better rejoice for us, that we are undergoing a feat for honoring the True God. If you weep from the devil’s envy, then weep more for yourself than for us, because you have turned aside from the righteous path and are rushing towards destruction. When after this the saints were presented for questioning for the third time and were again interrogated by the military leader Favstinus, they no longer answered anything except the words: – We are Christians and are ready to endure all kinds of suffering for the name of Christ. Then the commander, with a dejected face of sadness, issued a death sentence regarding them, which read: - Theodulus and Agathopod, who did not want to make sacrifices to the gods, will be drowned in the sea. After this, the soldiers led them to the sea; Having tied their hands back and hanging heavy stones around their necks, the soldiers put them on the ship. At this time, especially many friends, neighbors and acquaintances of the holy martyrs gathered on the seashore, some of whom wept in view of the death that would befall the saints, while others pleased the courageous soldiers of Christ with praise for having defeated the devil and joyfully dying for piety. Meanwhile, the military leader, feeling sorry for the saints, sent a special ambassador, Fulvius, to them, saying that if they brought only incense to the gods, they would be freed from death. But the saints did not cease to call on Christ and reject the vain pagan gods. Finally, after much exhortation, the wicked, seeing that the servants of Christ would in no case be inclined to worship idols, prepared to throw Saint Agathopod into the sea. The latter, turning his gaze to heaven, cried out in a loud voice: - Look! With this secondary baptism, all our sins are washed away, and we go clean to Christ Jesus! With these words the saint was thrown into the sea, and after him Saint Theodulus was thrown into the sea. Thus the holy martyrs completed their suffering and received the crown of victory from the hand of the Lord. The sea, having received the bodies of the saints, immediately threw them onto the shore without chains or stones. Relatives and friends, taking the bodies of the holy martyrs, buried them with honor. After some time, Saint Theodulus appeared to them with a bright face, in white clothes, and ordered them to distribute all their property to the poor, orphans and widows. The holy martyrs died on the fifth day of the month of April, glorifying in heaven the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the One God glorified in the Trinity. Amen. Diocletian, whose name is associated with the idea of ​​the last cruel persecution of pagans against Christians, ascended the Roman throne in 284 and reigned until 305. In 285, realizing the difficulty of managing a vast empire alone, he chose one of his generals, the brave Maximian (Hercules), as his co-ruler, giving him the western half of the empire with the title of Augustus. In 292, he elected two more assistants in government with the title of Caesars - Constantius Chlorus for Britain, Gaul and Spain and Galerius for Illyria. Diocletian moved his court from Rome to Nicomedia (this city was located on the Asian shore of the Propontis - the Sea of ​​Marmara), as a result of which old Rome gradually lost its importance. Mainly through the influence of Caesar Galerius, Diocletian issued four edicts, or decrees, against Christians and was one of their most severe persecutors. Thessalonica or Thessaloniki - the birthplace of the Slavic enlighteners Saints Cyril and Methodius - is a city in Macedonia, near the Aegean Sea. In 304, Diocletian issued the fourth edict, which condemned all Christians to torture and torment in order to force them to renounce Christianity and make sacrifices to idols. A contemporary of the present persecution, Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, in his Church History talks in detail about all the horrors that accompanied the persecution of Christians in different regions and cities of the empire. The name of “Zeus” (the son of Kronos and Rhea) was called by the ancient Greeks the god of the sky. He had many nicknames, which either came from the names of various places where he was worshiped, or served to express any of the diverse properties of this deity. The twelve highest or most important gods, according to the Greeks, lived in the airspace, between earth and sky, and their residence was in magnificent chambers at the top of Mount Olympus. That is why these gods are also called the Olympian gods. These were the gods: Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Apollo, Artemis, Hephaestus, Pallas-Athena, Ares, Aphrodite, Hermes and Hestia. You might be interested in: