Страдание во святых отца нашего Мартина Исповедника, папы Римского

After the death of Pope Theodore in 649, his place was taken by unanimous election by Blessed Martin 2528. At this time, Constance 2529, son of King Constantine and grandson of Heraclius, reigned in the East in Greece; in those years, the Greek kings still controlled ancient Rome and therefore had their own governors in the western part of the empire. In the East at that time the heresy of the Monothelites, i.e., was spreading more and more. like-minded people who recognized in our Lord Jesus Christ one will and one desire 2530. This heresy arose from the heresy of Eutyches that preceded it, who blasphemously asserted the existence in Christ Jesus of only one nature, contrary to Orthodox teaching, which confesses in our incarnate Lord Jesus Christ two natures and two wills, two desires and actions; each nature has its own will, its own desire and its own action in the one Person of Christ: the Lord Jesus Christ cannot be divided into two persons, but is recognized in two natures without their confusion. The founders of the heresy were the patriarchs: Cyrus of Alexandria and Sergius of Constantinople; The grandfather of King Constance, Heraclius, also assisted them in spreading the heresy. After the death of Sergius, Pyrrhus was made Patriarch of Constantinople, and after him Paul - both Monothelites heretics. On the advice of Paul, King Constance wrote a book containing the heretical teaching of the Monothelites and called it “Typos”; he sent it everywhere, commanding it to contain a creed in agreement with it regarding the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Many of the Orthodox Christians who did not share the heresy were subjected to expulsion, beatings, or even death for their resistance to the wicked command of the king; among them belongs the Monk Maximus the Confessor, as described in detail in his life 2531, and the holy Pope Martin, about whom we are now speaking. Immediately, after he took the throne of the Pope, the king sent him a book full of heretical teachings, wanting the newly installed pope to agree with his heresy and confirm it at the council. But Blessed Martin rejected her, saying: – Even if the whole world accepted this teaching that is contrary to Orthodoxy, then even in that case I would not accept it, and even if I had to suffer death, I would not deviate from the Gospel and Apostolic teaching and patristic tradition. Then he sent a letter to Patriarch Paul of Constantinople with some honest men from the church clergy, in which he lovingly admonished him not to create discord in church unity, not to sow heretical weeds among the wheat of pious faith, but, on the contrary, to convince the king to abandon teachings contrary to the Church. Patriarch Paul not only did not listen to Blessed Martin, but also subjected his envoys to dishonorable beatings and sent them into captivity on the borders of the empire. Then Saint Martin, following the advice of Abba 2532 of the Chrysopolitan Venerable Maximus, who was at that time in Rome, composed a Local Council of one hundred and five Western bishops and proposed for its consideration the errors of Cyrus, Sergius, Pyrrhus and Paul, together with the king’s book “Typos”; The council anathematized the heresy and issued a message to all Orthodox Christians, confirming them in Orthodoxy, explaining the destructiveness of the heresy and commanding them to beware of it in the most careful manner 2533. Hearing about such an act on the part of Saint Martin, the king became extremely angry: he sent a military leader named Olympia to Rome as his governor to capture Pope Martin. But Olympius, having arrived in Rome, was forced to abandon the idea of ​​​​openly taking the pope, because he found the aforementioned council, at which many bishops and people had gathered, so that the city was crowded with clergy and lay persons; Therefore, Olympius taught one soldier to kill, as if by accident, Saint Martin in the church. When a warrior with a sharp sword hidden under his clothes approached the pope in the church, intending to kill him, he suddenly unexpectedly went blind: for the Lord, who does not leave “the rod of the wicked over the lot of the righteous” 2534 (Ps. 125:3), did not allow the murderer to raise his tormenting hand against His faithful servant. Seeing that the Lord Himself was protecting His servant, Olympius left the pope alone and retired to Sicily, where he died in battle against the Saracens. The king, following the suggestions of Patriarch Paul, sent another governor to Rome, also a military leader, named Theodore and nicknamed Calliope. He was instructed to take Saint Martin, having first falsely accused the pope of allegedly, wanting to start a war against the king, communicating with the Saracens, encouraging them to revolt and that he was incorrectly maintaining the faith betrayed by the fathers and blaspheming the Most Pure Mother of God. Having reached Rome, the governor openly accused the pope of these crimes in front of everyone. The innocent Saint Martin began to justify himself from the slander being leveled against him: “I have never,” he said, “had any relations with the Saracens except for those cases when I sent alms to the poor and wretched brothers in faith who lived among them; whoever does not honor the Most Pure Mother of God, does not recognize Her as the Mother of God and does not worship Her, let him be cursed in this age and the next. “But the holy faith,” he concluded his justification, “is not preserved by us, but by those who unfairly disagree with us. The king's viceroy, not listening to the pope's excuses, continued to assert the truth of the accusations made and even added a new one - the supposedly incorrect occupation of the papal throne by Saint Martin. And one night, secretly with the assistance of the soldiers, he took the pope, took him to the pier and from there sent him in a boat to the island of Naxium, which was located among the distant islands known as the Cycladic islands 2535. Saint Martin stayed on this island for a whole year, enduring hunger and other deprivations of the essentials of life. If one of the pious inhabitants of the island, feeling sorry for the expelled pope, brought him something to alleviate his need, the guards did not allow those who came to the prisoner and forcibly took away the gifts from those who brought them; at the same time she reproached the latter, saying: - If any of you loves him and pities him, he is an enemy of the fatherland, for the expelled one is a heretic, an opponent of God and a rebel of the Greco-Roman state. And the guards inflicted many insults on Saint Martin, subjecting him to abuse and mockery. But he, weakening in physical strength from daily insults, deprivations and the illness that befell him, still did not lose his mental strength, enduring everything with gratitude for the sake of God. After a year had passed from the time of settlement on the island, Saint Martin was taken to Byzantium in 2536. The ship reached Byzantium in the fall and early in the morning stopped at the pier of Euthymius, near Archandia. Immediately the saint, already very ill, began to be disturbed by messengers from the Tsar and the Patriarch; deprived of all compassion, they dishonored such an honest bishop of God all day long from morning to evening, slandering and blaspheming him in every possible way. When evening came, the patriarchal notary 2537 Sagoliva came with many soldiers; Having taken Saint Martin from the ship, they put him on a stretcher (due to his illness he could no longer walk) and carried him to a courtyard called prandiaria; here they locked Saint Martin in a dark and cramped room and carefully guarded it, making sure that none of the city residents knew about his whereabouts. The saint stayed in this prison for ninety-three days, unable to talk to anyone. Saint Martin was then carried to the house of the sacellarium 2538, where the senators 2539 were assembled; when he was carried there, one of the elder senators shouted and ordered Saint Martin to get up from the stretcher on which he was brought into the assembly; one of the servants who carried said that dad could not get up because he was very ill; but the senator, not paying attention to Saint Martin’s illness, angrily again ordered him to stand up, ordering him to be supported due to his weakness of strength. Then Saint Martin, rising, stood in the middle, supported by the sides; False witnesses, specially called in advance and prepared in advance, stood up, bringing the above-mentioned unjust accusations against Saint Martin, adding others to them; to prove the truth of their words, they swore by the Holy Gospel. When Saint Martin, not knowing how to speak Greek, began to justify himself through an interpreter, the congregation not only did not listen to him, but also directly forbade him to speak; the translator was insulted with abusive words. Seeing this, Saint Martin said: “The Lord knows how great a benefit you will show me if you soon put me to death through some kind of execution.” After this, the saint was taken out and seated, since he could not stand, on a raised platform specially arranged for such cases, located in the square where many people usually gathered. The king secretly watched him from one of the upper rooms of his palace and sent a sacellarius to him; the latter, approaching Saint Martin, said to him threateningly: - So, you left God, and God left you. Having said this, he addressed the people, ordering them to curse Saint Martin, and the surrounding crowd began to shout loudly: Those present who knew the perfect innocence of the pope left this spectacle with a sad face and eyes full of tears. After this, the sacellarius said to the commander of the praetorium 2540: “Take him and cut him into pieces, for he is not worthy of life.” Immediately the speculators 2541 grabbed the saint, took off his outer clothes, and tore his lower ones in half; putting heavy iron chains around the neck and entire body of Saint Martin, they dragged him through the entire city to the praetorium, carrying in front of them a naked sword with which they intended to kill him. Some of the people reviled the saint and, mocking him, said, shaking their heads: -Where is his God? Where is the content of their creed? Others could not restrain themselves from crying and sobbing at the sight of such dishonor and torment inflicted on the saint of God. And the monk experienced double suffering: he suffered in body from illness, heavy bonds and blows from his tormentors, and at the same time he suffered in soul from exposure and dishonest ridicule, enduring shame and heartache. Arriving at the praetorium, the speculators dragged the bound saint into prison up the stairs: stumbling on the last step, Saint Martin fell and hurt himself, so that his body was covered with bruises and abrasions; Here they threw him along with the villains and robbers. After some time, he was transferred from here to another dungeon - Diomidov, where he almost died from illness and severe cold (it was the month of January). The wife of one of the prison guards took pity on Saint Martin: having come secretly to the holy prisoner, she took him into her house and, having bound his wounds, laid him on her bed, dressing him with a warm blanket; Saint Martin lay there until the evening, not making a single sound, like a dead man. Late in the evening, the chief of the royal eunuchs 2542 Gregory sent the steward of his house with a small amount of food and ordered him to give it to Saint Martin with the words: - Do not faint in grief; we hope that God will not let you die. Hearing this, the Monk Martin sighed with all his heart: the wish did not correspond to his aspirations, for Saint Martin, experiencing suffering for his Orthodoxy, wished to die as soon as possible; Immediately the shackles were removed from the monk. In the morning, the Tsar went to visit the terminally ill Patriarch Paul and told him everything that had happened to Pope Martin. Pavel turned to the wall and said, sighing heavily: - Woe is me, and another new act for my condemnation. “Is it a small crime, sir,” answered Paul, “to force the pope to endure such suffering?” And he prayed to the king, conjuring him to stop further mockery of the pope. Eight days later, after the death of Paul, the king sent the notary Demosthenes, accompanied by other deliberately dressed men, to Saint Martin in the Diomede prison. They entered the prison and said: “Our king tells you: after such glory you find yourself in such dishonor, but no one is to blame for this except yourself.” Saint Martin did not answer them anything to this; Raising his eyes to heaven, he said: “Thanksgiving and glory for everything to the one immortal King.” The messengers began to ask Saint Martin about Paul's predecessor, Patriarch Pyrrhus, whether the latter came to Rome of his own free will and renounced the Monothelite heresy here, and how Pope Theodore accepted him into communion with the church, after whom Saint Martin took the throne. Saint Martin told them in detail about Patriarch Pyrrhus, how he, of his own free will, having come to Rome, submitted a written renunciation of his heresy, to which, however, he returned again, and how he was received by Pope Theodore with the honor befitting his episcopal rank, receiving means for living. Saint Martin concluded his speech with the following address to those sent by the king: - I am in your hands - do with me what you want and what God allows you, but rest assured that even if you cut me into pieces, even then I will not be in communion with the Church of Constantinople until it abandons its heretical error; experience in practice the justice of my words, and you will see how great the grace of the Lord is in His servants. Having heard the answer of Saint Martin, the embassy returned to the king, marveling at the greatness and spiritual strength of the saint, not afraid of torment and death itself. Eighty-five days later, the notary Sagoliv came to Saint Martin in prison and said to him: “I have been ordered to take you from here to my house, from where you will be sent to a certain place.” -Where will they send me, to what place exactly? But Sagoliwa did not answer this question. Then Saint Martin said: “Leave me in prison until the time when you need to send me away.” The notary left. At sunset, the pope said to the prisoners who were with him: “Come, brothers, and let us give each other the last kiss: immediately a messenger will come for me to take me away from here.” Everyone said goodbye to him with tears, but Saint Martin, expressing joy on his face, said to them: – Don’t cry, but rejoice – you see, I rejoice that I am going to suffer for Orthodoxy. After this, the mentioned notary came again, who took the saint from prison; All those present wept inconsolably, regretting the separation from the monk. Saint Martin was put on a ship and sent into captivity in Kherson 2543; here he was starved, deprived of everything he needed, so that after two years he departed to the Lord 2544. His honorable body was buried outside the city of Kherson in the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos, called Blachernae. Soon his tomb began to attract many people: the most varied and numerous healings were received by the sick through the prayers of the saint and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, to Him with the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory forever. Amen. Monophysites - monophysites - were heretics who taught about one Divine nature in the Lord Jesus Christ - about the complete fusion in Jesus Christ of the Divine and human nature with the absorption of the latter by the former; Otherwise, this heresy is called Eutychianism on behalf of the Constantinople Archimandrite Eutyches, who first declared this teaching and initiated the Monophysite disputes. This heresy was first condemned at the local Council of Constantinople (448), and Eutyches was deposed; Patriarch Flavian of Constantinople, who presided over the council, reported its decisions to Pope Saint Leo the Great. The latter agreed to the condemnation of Eutyches and wrote a letter in which he outlined the Orthodox teaching about the union of two natures in Jesus Christ. Meanwhile, Eutyches found support in Emperor Theodosius II and the Alexandrian Patriarch Dioscorus. The council convened by the emperor in Ephesus (449), known in history as the “robber” for his lawless actions, condemned Patriarch Flavian and acquitted Eutyches. The papal ambassador Deacon Hilary, who was present at the council, expressed disagreement with the resolution of the council and fled to Rome, where the pope immediately declared Dioscorus excommunicated and the resolutions of the Council of Ephesus invalid; Dioscorus, in turn, anathematized Pope Leo in Alexandria. The question of the union of two natures in the Lord Jesus Christ was finally resolved after the death of Emperor Theodosius II (450). Empress Pulcheria and co-emperor Marcian opposed the heretics; in 451, the fourth (Chalcedonian) Ecumenical Council was convened, which deposed Patriarch Dioscorus and thus defined the dogma about the image of the union of two natures in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ: “following the Divine Fathers, we all unanimously teach to confess... one and the same Christ, the Son, the only begotten Lord, in two natures, unfused, unchangeable, inseparably, inseparably cognizable... not divided into two faces, but one in the same Son and only begotten God the Word.” – The decision of the Council of Chalcedon was not accepted in Egypt, Armenia, and also partly in Syria and Palestine. In these countries, Monophysite heretics still exist; their total number reaches 5,000,000: Syrian Monophysites or Jacobites 600,000, Armenians Gregorians 280,000, Copts about 300,000 and Abyssinians more than 2,000,000. Monothelitism or the one-willed heresy arose at the beginning of the 7th century. under the influence of the desire of the Byzantine rulers to annex widespread Monophysitism to the church: discord between the Orthodox and Monophysites was not only a church disaster, but also a state disaster. Monophysite bishops, mainly Cyrus, bishop of Phasis in Colchis, gave the emperor Heraclius (611–641) the idea that a union between them and the Orthodox could take place if the Orthodox Church recognized in Christ Jesus one will, one action. In 633, through the efforts of the emperor and Cyrus, made the Patriarch of Alexandria, it was possible to arrange unity between the Egyptian monophilites and the Orthodox; Almost all eastern and Greek bishops, with Patriarch Sergius of Constantinople at their head, joined this unity. The beloved disciple of the Alexandrian Patriarch John the Merciful, monk Sophronius, openly opposed such an illegal agreement, proving that the doctrine of unity of will is also Monophysitism or the recognition of a single Divine nature in the Lord Jesus Christ, for if there is one nature, then naturally there is one will. Having become Patriarch of Jerusalem in 634, he defended Orthodoxy with even greater zeal: he convened a council in Jerusalem, at which he condemned monothelitism. Wanting to put an end to the strife, Emperor Heraclius in 638 issued a “statement of faith” (ektesis) compiled by Patriarch Sergius, which contained the Orthodox teaching about two natures in Jesus Christ and forbade talking about His will, although at the same time it was added that the Orthodox faith requires recognition of one will. After the publication of the “statement of faith,” the Constantinople monk Maximus the Confessor, who successfully acted against the Monothelites in northern Africa and Rome, became an ardent defender of Orthodoxy. Heraclius's successor, Constance II, wishing to destroy the ektesis or "statement of faith" that had further aroused discord, in 648 issued a "typos" - a model of faith, where he forbade talking about both one and two wills, forcing one to believe according to the former five Ecumenical Councils. But “typos” did not put an end to the controversy, as we see from this life. Finally, Emperor Constantine Pagonatus (668–685) convened the sixth (Trullian) Ecumenical Council in Constantinople, at which monothelitism was condemned as a heresy and it was determined that in Christ Jesus one must confess two actions, two wills, with the human one following and submitting in everything to the will of the Divine, without being destroyed through this. – The remnants of the Monothelites have survived to this day in the form of the Maronite sect. They first took refuge (from 680) on the Lebanon Mountains; During the Crusades (1182), the teaching of the Monothelites penetrated into the West, into Europe, but, thanks to the activities of the popes, did not find many followers, although it continued until 1736, when the Jewish Monothelites joined the Catholic Church. In the East in Syria (in the Kesravan district) they still exist. This council took place in the year of Saint Martin's accession to the papal throne, i.e. in 649 That is, the Lord, allowing the temporary triumph of the wicked over the righteous, always grants the final victory to the pious. These islands, numbering 60, are located in the Aegean Sea. Present-day Constantinople. Sacellarius was a high church dignitary who stood at the head of a special council that governed the monasteries of Constantinople, managed the monastery's economy and oversaw the life of the monks. A senator is the highest government official. Pretoria is a public place where court cases were mainly decided and decisions on them were carried out. Praetor - the highest judge in Ancient Rome; Later their range of responsibilities expanded. A speculator is an assistant to the praetor, the executor of his orders. A eunuch is a castrated servant who was entrusted with supervising their wives; Initially, the custom of having such servants for this purpose arose in Asia Minor; Eunuchs are known in ancient Rome. In Byzantium, court life which developed under the influence of the East, there were also eunuchs; given the opportunity to act on rulers through their wives, eunuchs sometimes acquired strong influence on the course of state affairs, so the position of chief of eunuchs was respectable. Cape on the western coast of Crimea; here in the 5th century. BC Chersonese; a few miles from Sevastopol the ruins of this city are visible. You might be interested in: