Страдание святого священномученика Мокия

During the reign of Diocletian 3087 under the Anthipats 3088 of Laodicea and Maximus, during the persecution that was raised against Christians everywhere, the Christian presbyter Mokios lived in the city of Amphipolis, located in Macedonia. At a time when the pagans were celebrating an unclean celebration of their wicked god Dionysius, or Bacchus 3089, this presbyter, kindled with zeal for the name of Christ, stood among the pagans and said publicly: - Listen, O deluded and misguided ones! How long will you go astray, walking foolishly in the darkness of idolatry? How long will you not realize your destruction? When will you finally become disgusted with all these demonic abominations? Turn and know the Lord God, revealed to us by His Only Begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the light of truth drove away the darkness of ignorance. Blessed Mokiy spoke many other words similar to these and spoke more than once, but every day, approaching the people, he publicly denounced the error of the pagans who worshiped idols, and preached Christ, the true God. But, blinded by madness, the citizens did not pay attention to the words of the monk and continued to perform their unclean rituals. Meanwhile, from the city of Apollonia, also located in Macedonia, an anthipat named Laodicea arrived in Amphipolis and began to offer sacrifice to Dionysius. Laodicea was told about the servant of Christ Mokias that he distracted many from the celebration of the god Dionysius. The pagans slandered the saint a lot, saying: “Here is a Christian teacher who tried to seduce the people with some strange teaching; he convinces everyone to believe in the crucified and dead Man; and indeed, many, leaving our gods, accepted his faith. If you do not stop him from spreading this teaching, then the whole city will follow him, and then there will be no one left to offer sacrifices to the gods.” Anfipat, very angry, ordered to beat the saint. Then, sitting down in the judgment seat, he ordered to call Saint Mokios to himself. When he was called, the enfipat asked him: - Tell me: who are you who does not want to make sacrifices with us and dissuades people from making sacrifices to the gods? - An ignoramus who does not know the truth! Why are you asking me something that you still won’t understand? Think a little to yourself and admit the truth, because I studied the Holy Scriptures and learned from it that all pagan gods are demonic (Ps. 96:5), and hope in them is vain. - I see that you are trained in verbosity. – Our verbosity teaches us the truth; if you want to understand the truth, listen to what I tell you: the gods you worship are demons - they are dumb and deaf. - Make a sacrifice to the gods if you want to save your life, which you arbitrarily want to destroy. - Oh anfipat! Dying for Christ is a great gain for me. Then the anfipat, filled with rage, ordered Saint Mokius to be hanged on a martyrdom tree and his body to be planed from head to toe with iron tools. Being tormented, the saint cried out to God, saying: “Master, reigning forever, shining with the rays of truth! Show Thy servants Thy Divine power and give me the strength to strive to the end for Thy holy commandments.” The torturer’s servants tormented the saint’s body for such a long time that they finally became exhausted themselves. Then the anfipat ordered them to leave, as lazy and weak; He ordered the martyr to be called again for interrogation. Despite the torment he endured, the saint appeared before Laodicea with a strong body, ready to testify to the truth with even greater courage. Going to the tormentor, Mokiy loudly glorified God. - Make a sacrifice to the god Dionysius so that he will save you from many troubles. “Do you really consider an idol, motionless and silent, made by the hand of man, to be God? O erring servant of the devil! Don't you see that my body is not exhausted from your torment? Don't you see that I feel absolutely no pain in my wounds? All your strength is nothing. After hearing these words, Laodicea said: “Your firmness in torment depends not on the power of your God, but on your magic.” So I give the order to burn your body in fire, so that all your members will be turned to ashes and they will be scattered by the wind. And immediately the tormentor ordered to prepare a very large furnace, ordered it to be filled with tar and brushwood and lit; the smoke from the stove rose upward sixty cubits, so that the air around the stove was darkened for a long distance. Then Laodicea said to the saint: - Make a sacrifice to the god Dionysius. Then Laodicea said again: - How long will you resist my orders? This is the fire prepared for you. Look at him and understand the greatness and power of our god Dionysius and bow to him. “I already told you, anfipat, that I will not bow to the deaf, blind and dumb destroyer of human souls.” Don't you want to make sure that the one you call god is not a god, but an idol? Laodicea answered angrily: - Oh damn! Can someone who has Divine power within himself be an idol? You see for yourself that the power that dwells in him accepts sacrifices from us and gives us prosperity. “Would you like me to make a sacrifice to your god, so that everyone, seeing that I make a sacrifice to the god Dionysius, will know his great power?” - Bow down and make a sacrifice, and understand his greatness. Then Mokiy, entering the idol’s church, first of all made the sign of the cross on himself in order to arm himself with the weapon of Christ against the devil; then, standing near the place where the idol of Dionysius was located, he prayed to God, saying this: “Lord, who holds all creation in His power and created everything through the mediation of Your Christ, who shamed the devil, who does not know Your truth, and who bestowed the bliss of knowledge of God and chastity on all who fear You and honor Your holy name! Thou, O Holy Lord, who shattered the idols of Babylon and showed the true faith of Thy prophet Daniel; You, who abolished the abominable altar of idols through Your three servants and quenched the fire in the furnace (Dan.3); You, who drowned Pharaoh in the depths of the sea and listened to the prayers of Moses (Exodus 14); You who brought water out of the stone (Exodus 17:1–7); You, the eternal King, both now existing and previously former and eternally having to exist, hear me, Your servant! So I pray to You: come to my aid and show Your power to those who contain lies instead of truth, so that they may know that You are the only true and eternal God and so that Your light may drive away the darkness of idolatrous error.” Having prayed like this, the saint cried out in a loud voice, turning to the idol: - Obscene and vain! Dumb and senseless Dionysius! I command you in the great and glorious name of my Christ who lives in heaven: fall and spread across the earth, so that everyone can see your weakness and your powerlessness. And immediately the earth and the church shook; The idol fell to the ground with a great noise and broke into small pieces. Seeing this, all the pagans who were there fled from there in fear, marveling at themselves at what had happened. After this, Saint Mokios said to the enthipat Laodicea: - Look at the vanity of your idols, demons. Come and gather the remains of your god, in whom you trusted, and understand what a perilous path you are on! Laodiceus was greatly saddened, regretting the idol of Dionysius, and immediately ordered the saint to be thrown into a hot furnace. When the saint was thrown into the fire, he fearlessly stood among the flames, as if in the middle of some garden, and publicly glorified God. In the oven they saw three more men singing with him; Among these three husbands, one had a very bright face, shining like the sun; the shine emanating from his face was stronger than the shine of fire. Then the saint said to the men who were with him in the oven: – I thank You, Master God of our fathers, whose word everyone obeys; Blessed are You, Lord of hosts, Creator of all the powers of heaven, praised by the lips of the holy Archangels, who was once co-present with the three youths in the flame (among those three youths You, the fourth, were visible). I pray to You, my Savior, destroy and destroy the fire of this kindled furnace and burn this anfipat with fire. Show Your wrath on him and destroy him from the face of the earth, so that everyone can see that You are the only true God who dwells in heaven. And immediately the fire from the furnace spread to the anphipat and turned it into ashes, along with the nine armor-bearers who stood near it, so that nothing remained of their bodies, for the wrath of God destroyed them. The people, seeing everything that happened, fell into great fear and fled in horror from the stove; Saint Mokiy came out of the oven completely healthy and unharmed. Having learned about such a miracle, the mayor Fallasius was filled with great rage and, taking Saint Mokius, ordered him to be imprisoned. Twenty days after this, another anfipat, named Maxim, arrived in that city. Having learned everything that the saint had done, and also having learned about the death of Laodicea, Maxim began to look for a means by which he could destroy the saint. Sitting down in his judgment seat, Maxim ordered the martyr of Christ to be summoned to him for interrogation. When the saint was brought, the enfipat asked him: - Tell me, what is your name and what family do you come from? - If you want to know my name and family, then listen: my father bore the name Euphrates, and my mother Eustathia; when they accepted holy baptism, they named me Mokiy. Having been raised by my parents in a pious life, I was honored with the rank of priest in the Church of Christ my God; and now my life has already approached old age. -Who were your parents? – My father was a citizen of the great city of Rome and performed the duties of a military rank; my mother was the daughter of the anfipat Lampadius. - If you come from such a noble family, then why did you give yourself over to magic that is indecent for you? Why did you destroy the great god Dionysius and burn the king’s friend, the anthipat Laodicea? Why did you prevent holiday sacrifices from being offered to the gods? “It was not I, but my omnipotent God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who destroyed and crushed the soulless god Dionysius and burned Laodicea with the fire of His rage. I only serve my God with fear and love and confess with my lips His holy name. – Leave your madness and make a sacrifice to Apollo 3090; otherwise you will die a cruel death. “I will die a cruel death if I forget the good deeds and mercy of my God towards me and if I worship and honor those who are not gods, but idols.” Then Maxim ordered the martyr to be tied to two wheels arranged for torment, so that when the wheels rotated they would tear his body to pieces. The saint, in the midst of torment, cried out: – How sweet is the love of God! Then, turning to the tormentor, he said: – Do with zeal the will of your father, the devil. As for me, I agree to all torment and even death itself for the sake of the name of Christ. Then the saint began to pray, saying: “Lord, Source of purity, Helper, Defender and Deliverer! I thank You for making me, unworthy, worthy of this feat and helping me overcome the devil. You are the One True God, keeping my mind pure and protecting it from unclean thoughts. You arrange that my mind may delight in You, my Creator, because Your name is great for those who love You.” After the saint prayed like this, the tormenting wheels suddenly broke and the martyr stood up on the ground completely healthy and unharmed. Everyone who saw this miracle was very surprised at what happened. The torturer, filled with shame, like a defeated martyr, became even more angry with the saint and ordered him to be thrown into prison. Three days after this, he ordered the saint to be taken out of prison and given to be devoured by wild beasts. Two hungry lions were released on the saint, roaring loudly. When they approached the saint, they lay down on the ground in front of him, as if worshiping him and hugging his legs; then the lions began to lick the saint’s feet, as if kissing them. The people, seeing everything that had happened, cried out loudly, saying: “Let this righteous man, whom even animals reverence and whom God loves, be released!” Then the anfipat Maximus sent the martyr to the Thracian city of Perinth, now called Irakleia, to hegemon Philippisius, to whom he wrote everything about the martyr. This hegemon, having kept the saint in prison for eight days, ordered him to be taken to Byzantium so that the martyr’s head would be cut off. When the saint was brought to the place of beheading, he raised his eyes to heaven and said: – Blessed are You, Lord, who created the centuries and brings to the end the exploits of the saints. Receive my spirit into peace! And there came to the saint a voice from heaven, saying: - Rejoice, My good ascetic, Mokiy, who clearly defeated the power of the tormentor before everyone. Come and settle down with other ascetics in the Kingdom of Heaven. You have worked enough in the world; rest now and rejoice in heaven. Then the martyr of Christ was beheaded at the head of 3091. Saint Mokius accomplished his martyrdom on the eleventh day of the month of May, on which Emperor Constantine subsequently established a celebration for him. The same emperor also built a church in honor of the saint and transferred the relics of the martyr into it. Let all who celebrate the memory of the holy martyr Mokias be inspired by the faith that they too will be participants with him in the grace-filled kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom glory, honor and worship are sent, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen. Armed with the shield of faith, you wiped out the wicked militias, O holy martyr, and you took the crown from Christ, the Wet Ones: thus rejoicing with the Angels, save thee who sing from troubles, praying unceasingly for all of us. Diocletian ruled the Roman Empire from 284 to 305. Anfipat is the ruler of the region. Dionysius or Bacchus, according to the teachings of Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Semele, the god of grapes and winemaking, who delighted the hearts of people with the gift of wine. Dionysius was considered the patron saint of everything growing in the fields - flowers and fruits. The celebration in honor of Dionysius was initially moderate, but later turned into revelry and debauchery. During these festivals, the pagans ran around in an excited, intoxicated state, tore apart animals and ate bloody meat. In honor of the god Dionysius, festivities were held four times a year and lasted each time for several days or even weeks. Apollo - according to Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Latona - is the god of prosperity and order, the guardian of the rule of law. As the announcer of the will of Zeus to people, he was also considered the god of predictions and oracles. Death of St. The martyr followed approx. 295 g. You might be interested in: