Страдание святого мученика Исихия

The holy martyr Hesychius suffered during the reign of Emperor Maximian in 3077. At the latter's court he occupied first place, had the title of magister 3078 and lived in Antioch 3079. Maximian excluded Christians from military service and ordered those who wished to remain in the Christian faith to take off their military belts and move into the position of hired servants. After such a royal command, many preferred the inglorious life of servants to the disastrous honor of a military rank. Among them was the glorious Hesychius. Having learned about this, Maximian ordered him to take off the precious clothes of a dignitary, put on a coarse hair shirt 3080 and be among the female servants. A few days after this, he called Hesychius to him and said to him: “Hesychius, tell me, aren’t you ashamed to remain in such dishonor?” But the saint answered him: “The honor I had from you is temporary. After this answer, Maximian ordered to tie a millstone around Hesychius’s neck and throw it into the river. And so the holy martyr died 3081. Here, of course, Maximian Galerius, son-in-law and successor of Emperor Diocletian, reigned in the eastern half of the Roman Empire from 305 to 311. In 292, Diocletian elected Galerius as his assistant in governing the empire with the title of Caesar and entrusted him with Illyria and the countries along the Danube. Being related to Diocletian, Galerius had a strong influence on the elderly emperor and even before the publication of a general edict against Christians in 303, he forced him to issue a private edict, according to which Christians were removed from military service, and he himself was the most zealous executor of this edict. He not only expelled Christians from military service, but also removed them from his court. The title magister or magistrate meant at the court of the Roman emperors one of the highest court positions, something like our Minister of the Court. Here we must understand Syrian Antioch, the once magnificent capital of Syria, and now a poor town in Antiochian Turkey. Hair shirt is a garment woven from horsehair. The holy martyr died under Diocletian, but the year of his death is unknown. You might be interested in: