Житие и страдание святого мученика Иустина Философа

The Holy Martyr of Christ Justin the Philosopher was born in Palestinian Syria, within Samaria, in a city originally called Shechem, and later 3542 Neapolis Flavilus 3543. His father, named Priscus, was a noble pagan; Justin himself was a pagan until he was enlightened by the light of holy faith. Inspired by a love of truth, from his youth he was diligent in book learning and, thanks to his keen mind, excelled in the sciences taught in Greek pagan schools. Having mastered the art of eloquence, he felt a desire for philosophy and first became a student of one philosopher, a Stoic 3544, in order to find out what the teaching of the Stoics was. Justin was eager to gain the concept of God, but after spending some time with the Stoic philosopher, he did not learn anything about God from him, since the Stoic did not know God and did not consider teaching about Him necessary. Then Justin left this teacher and went to another philosopher, one of the so-called Peripatetics 3545, who was considered a sage. A few days passed before this philosopher began to negotiate with Justin about payment, not wanting to teach him for nothing. Seeing his teacher’s love of money, Justin felt contempt for him as a covetous man, and decided that this teacher was not even worthy to be called a philosopher, since he did not know contempt for worldly wealth. Having rejected, for the above reasons, the Stoics and Peripatetics, Justin, prompted by an unsatisfied desire for true philosophy leading to the knowledge of God, wanted to choose one famous Pythagorean philosopher 3546 as his teacher. He found that Justin should first of all study astronomy, geometry, arithmetic, music and some other sciences, as necessary, in his opinion, in earthly life. But Justin reasoned that it would be necessary to spend many years studying these sciences, while there would be no benefit from them for the soul; Having not heard anything from this teacher that would satisfy the desire of his heart, every day more and more inflamed by Divine love, Justin also left him. Then he turned to one of the Platonists 3547, whose teaching in those days was in great glory and respect; the Platonic philosopher promised to teach him the knowledge of incorporeal objects from the likeness of corporeal ones, higher knowledge from the likeness of lower ones, and the understanding of God from the understanding of ideas - for the intended end of this Platonic teaching was the transition from the knowledge of ideas to the understanding of God. Blessed Justin willingly bowed down to this path, hoping to comprehend the object of his aspirations - Divine wisdom, which gives knowledge of God and fulfills His grace. He spent quite some time with the Platonist teacher, soon learned the dogmas and rules of Plato, and achieved perfection and glory as a Hellenic philosopher. But Justin could not yet achieve true Christian knowledge of God in this way, for the Greek philosophers, honoring the incorruptible God under the corruptible image of people, birds, four-footed animals and reptiles, glorified Him not according to his true worth. Nevertheless, Justin had some spiritual consolation, practicing the thought of God and learning the knowledge of God, as far as his mind, not yet enlightened by the true teaching, could comprehend. Walking one day outside the city, in a secluded place near the sea and discussing various philosophical teachings in his mind, Justin saw some venerable old man, unfamiliar to him, with gray hair. When he looked attentively at the elder, the latter said: “Do you know me that you look at me so closely?” “I don’t know,” answered Justin, “but it is surprising for me to see you in this deserted place, where I did not expect to meet anyone.” “My relatives,” said the elder, “have gone in that direction; expecting their return, I went out to meet them in order to see them from afar. What are you doing here? – I like to take walks in solitude so that I can think about philosophy without interruption. – What benefit do you get from philosophy? - asked the old man. – What can be found more useful than philosophy? She is the enlightener of the mind, the leader and teacher of all reasoning, the leader of life; whoever recognizes it well sees the ignorance and delusion of others as in a mirror; Without philosophical teaching and the correct use of reason, wisdom cannot exist. Therefore, every person should study philosophy in order to know what is beneficial and what is not, what to adhere to and what to reject. – But does philosophy bring happiness to a person? - asked the old man. - Tell me, what is philosophy, and what is the happiness from it? “Philosophy,” answered Justin, “is the understanding of everything that exists and the knowledge of truth; The happiness brought by philosophy lies in the possession of the same understanding and wisdom. – If the truth is known with the help of correct philosophical understanding, then what can you say about God? - A being that never changes, but always remains in the same state, the primary cause of all being - this is how I think about God. The elder liked this answer and continued asking: – Does everything that exists have one common mind? After all, about someone who is knowledgeable in any art, they say that he understands this art: whether it is surveying, navigation or medicine; Doesn't the same thing happen in relation to other things Divine and human? Tell me again: is there such a mind from which comes the knowledge of things, both Divine and human? “Truly there is,” answered Justin. – Is it the same thing: to understand God, or to understand music, arithmetic, astronomy, or something like that? - Not at all. It is another thing to understand God, another thing to know any art. “You answered well,” said the elder, “we obtain some knowledge either from hearing and learning or from contemplating an object with our own eyes.” If, for example, someone told you that in India there was such and such an animal, not similar to any other animals, but completely different from them in its various properties, without seeing it with your own eyes, you could not know about it, and without first hearing the story about this animal, you could not tell someone else about it. Now I ask you: how can your Hellenic philosophers understand correctly about God and affirm anything true about Him if they have never seen Him, never heard of Him, and, therefore, have no knowledge of Him? - Father! The power of the Divine is not seen with bodily eyes, as any earthly living beings are viewed by man, but with the mind alone one can comprehend God, as Plato says, whose teaching I follow. – Is there some force in our mind with such properties and so powerful, through which we could comprehend the invisible rather than cognize any thing with our bodily senses? – Truly there is such a power; Plato calls it the eye of the mind, which, according to his teaching, was given to man for the purpose that, purified and enlightened by the teachings of wisdom, he could contemplate the Divine truth itself, the cause of all things comprehended by the mind. This truth does not have a specific image, or any likeness, or age, or anything accessible to bodily eyes, but is a Being above all beings, incomprehensible, inscrutable, a combination of goodness and beauty; from the beginning, this Being itself implanted in noble souls the desire to know Him, for He loves when such souls know and contemplate Him. The elder was pleased to hear such words, but still he was not completely satisfied with this reasoning of Justin about God according to the teachings of Plato, as imperfect due to the lack of Christian confession and, not approving of Plato, said: “If Plato teaches as you profess, then why didn’t he himself know and comprehend the truth of God?” Claiming that God is invisible and incomprehensible, he worshiped visible creation, the sky, stars, trees and stones, hewn in human likeness, as God Himself and, turning the truth of God into a lie, adhered to idolatry, and taught others to do so. I do not think that Plato and other Hellenic philosophers possessed a correct mind capable of achieving true knowledge of God: “they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish hearts were darkened; calling themselves wise, they became fools” (Rom. 1:21–22). In a word, I will say this: the human mind, not instructed by the Holy Spirit and not enlightened by faith, is completely unable to know and understand God. So the elder spoke a lot of similar things about the right knowledge of God, true worship of God and other Divine things, denouncing the error of the Hellenic philosophers. Marveling at the elder’s speeches, Justin asked: – Where and what kind of teacher can one find for instruction in the truth, if there is no truth in Plato and other philosophers? Then the elder began to tell him about the holy prophets, saying: – In ancient times, much earlier than all philosophers, there were certain holy men, righteous and pleasing to God; filled with the Holy Spirit, they predicted what was happening now, and those men were called prophets. They alone knew the truth before anyone else and, proclaiming it to people, were not embarrassed by anyone and were not afraid of anyone; no one could convince them in one word to deviate from the truth, and vain glory could not defeat them. They spoke simply, truly and fearlessly about everything that they contemplated or heard from God in the revelations that were given to them. Their writings still exist; whoever reads them with faith, they bring him much benefit and enlighten the mind to the knowledge of the truth. These holy prophets do not confirm their words with cunning or any sophistical arguments or conclusions, but in simple conversation they speak the very truth, for they themselves, in addition to all sophistic arguments, are the most faithful witnesses of the truth, as those who believed in the one true God, the Creator of all that exists, and who foretold the coming into the world of His Son, the Lord Christ. And there is no doubt that the prophets deserve faith, since some of their predictions have already been fulfilled, and others are now being fulfilled. They confirmed the truth of some of their prophecies through miracles, performing wondrous deeds with the power given to them from above by God’s grace, which false prophets, not ordained by God, could never do, but only frightened people with certain demonic ghosts and deceptions. This is how the blessed man, unknown to him, talked with Justin, and finally said to him: – First of all, pray diligently to the true God, that he may open the doors of light for you, for only he can contemplate and understand the Divine whom God Himself will honor with revelation; He reveals Him to everyone who seeks Him through prayer and draws close to Him through love. Having said this, the elder walked away from him and became invisible; Never and nowhere later could Justin find or see this man. Justin himself, in a conversation with the glorious Judean Tryphon, spoke about his heartfelt feelings after the elder’s departure as follows: - Some kind of fire flared up in me, igniting my spirit with a desire for God, and my love for the holy prophets and for those men who are the friends of Christ grew in me. Reflecting on the words of the elder, I learned that the philosophy he proclaimed was the only true one, I began to read prophetic and apostolic books and from them I truly became a philosopher, that is, a true Christian. Having subsequently told Tryphon this about himself, Blessed Justin simultaneously commemorated how his appeal to God began, when he was guided on the right path by an unknown man, as if sent from heaven. After a soul-searching conversation with the divinely inspired elder, Justin immediately turned to Christian books and began to read the Divine Scriptures with heartfelt diligence. He compared the ancient prophecies of the Sibyls 3549 with the predictions of the holy prophets about the incarnation of Christ from the Most Pure Virgin, about His free suffering, about the future judgment and about the end of the visible world; Seeing complete agreement in both, he marveled, and little by little, under the inner guidance of the Holy Spirit, he came to a more perfect knowledge of God and the Son of God. Day by day, his desire for piety intensified in his soul and, leaning towards the Christian faith, he condemned the Hellenic madness in himself. At that time, a considerable obstacle to the good intentions of the soul striving for Christian piety was the frequent and fierce persecution of Christians, as well as many dishonest, shameful, hearing-impossible, slander of vices falsely leveled against Christians by the pagans - as if Christians in their nightly (prayer) meetings, having extinguished the lamps, at the same time extinguished the light of purity, mutually being defiled by uncleanness, and like beasts they eat human flesh. With such and similar vile accusations, the pagans and Jews dishonored innocent Christians before all nations. The lies of wicked and insane people were believed as if they were the truth itself; and all the infidels hated Christians, righteous and holy people, abhorred them, despised and turned away from them, as great lawless people, guilty of grave sins, and betrayed Christians to death after many and varied torments. These circumstances initially hindered Justin in his intention to join the Christians; but still, he did not give much faith to the accusations brought against Christians, knowing well that often by unreasonable popular courts the innocent are condemned as guilty, the pure are dishonored as debauchees, and the righteous are considered sinners. Seeing that Christians fearlessly give answers in court, courageously endure torment, despise all the visible blessings of this world as rubbish, voluntarily surrender to torture for their Lord and strive for death as for a feast, Justin reasoned to himself: - It is not true what they say about Christians, as if they commit such iniquities: a sinner, mired in unbridled sensual pleasures and consuming human flesh out of voluptuousness, does not endure torment, does not voluntarily give himself up to wounds, but avoids them; being brought to any court, he tries in every possible way to get rid of it and spares no expense to buy off punishment, so that later he can live painlessly and, enjoying his bodily health, even more indulge in his lusts. Christians are not like that: voluntarily choosing suffering for Christ in whom they believe, and preferring death to life, how can they love sin so much? Reasoning in this way, he carefully inquired about the life of Christians and was fully convinced that they abide in the fear of the Lord purely and immaculately, diligently observe their chastity, constantly mortify themselves by fasting and abstinence, pray often and always practice all sorts of good deeds. Convinced of all this, Justin fell in love with Christians with all his heart, became attached to them and accepted holy baptism. And he became a great champion of the Christian faith, a fighter in word and scripture against the Hellenes and Jews, an invincible warrior of Christ, a strong and courageous ascetic. Striving for the salvation of human souls, he traveled around various countries: he taught and preached about the name of Christ, turning the infidels from their delusion to God. He also came to Rome 3550 as a philosopher, in philosophical garb, together with his disciples. Since many came to him for teaching, he formed schools and, under the guise of external wisdom, taught true Christian philosophy. Having met Marcion 3551 there, the founder of the heresy, he forcefully opposed him, refuted him and wrote books against his heresies, as well as against other heretical teachings. There in Rome there was a certain pagan cynic philosopher 3552 Crescent, the great enemy of Christians; the true Christian philosopher Saint Justin constantly fought with this wicked philosopher with words and wrote books against him. This cynic, himself living uncleanly and very lawlessly, hated Christians for their chaste life according to God and envied the good fame of Justin, who enjoyed honorable fame among all the Romans for his divinely inspired wisdom and pure, immaculate life. In his malice, the cynic slandered Christians, accusing them of many shameful deeds, in order to dishonor Justin together with his fellow believers in the eyes of the people and arouse disgust towards them. Hearing and seeing this, Saint Justin said: – I am ready to suffer for the faith of Christ and endure death from the infidels; and I think that it will comprehend me through this Criscent cynic, a madman who loves pride more than wisdom, who is not worthy of the title of philosopher, for he dares to assert what he does not know for certain, that Christians are atheists (do not have God), and do a lot of unclean and lawless things; so he blasphemes us out of hatred and malice, and even worse than ordinary people, for the latter do not dare to say anything about things they do not know. Antonin 3553, successor of Hadrian, then reigned in Rome. Antonin himself was not embittered against Christians; however, by virtue of the decrees of the previous kings, the wicked idolaters who ruled the people persecuted and killed Christians out of great hatred towards them, as well as out of covetousness, in order to plunder their estates; and not so much for the sake of confessing the name of Christ, but because of false slanderous accusations of many iniquities, the faithful were brought to trial, interrogated in slanders and executed by various types of death. At this time, the following incident occurred in Rome: a certain pagan woman who lived uncleanly, having heard from Christians the word about the true God and the teaching about a chaste life, about reward for the righteous and about torment for sinners, was touched in her soul and believed in Christ. She admonished her husband, a zealous idolater, mired in carnal impurity, in every possible way, wanting to instruct him in an abstinent life and convert him to the true faith. When she saw that she was completely unable to correct him, she sought means to dissolve the marital union with him, so as not to live together and no longer be defiled by uncleanness. The husband, having learned which Christian taught his wife the Christian faith, went to the mayor to complain about the Christian, whose name was Ptolemy. The servant of Christ Ptolemy was taken, kept for a long time in a stinking prison and, brought to trial, was sentenced to death by the mayor. During this unjust trial, a certain man named Lucius stood there, and seeing that blessed Ptolemy was convicted innocently, he said to the unjust judge: - For what guilt, mayor, are you selling your husband, innocent of death, to death? He is not an adulterer, not a rapist, not a murderer, not a thief, not a predator, nor is he convicted of any other lawlessness. His only fault is that he confessed to be a Christian. Looking menacingly at the speaker, the mayor asked angrily: – And aren’t you one of the Christians? Then the mayor ordered him to be put to death. A third, their friend, who publicly confessed himself a Christian, joined these two Christians; and all three laid down their lives for Christ. Blessed Justin, having learned about this unjust murder of the saints, was filled with grief, writing a scroll, or apology 3554, proving the innocence of Christians, handed it over to the king, his sons and the entire Senate, fearlessly ready to suffer torment and death for Christ. The king read this scroll with attention, marveled at the wisdom of the Christian philosopher and not only did not become angry with him and did not put him to death, but even praised his intelligence. In this scroll, Justin exposed the falsity of the pagan gods, clearly depicted the omnipotence of Christ, proved that the accusations brought against Christians were false, and that their lives were chaste and righteous. Touched, the king commanded that Christians should not be tortured for confessing the name of Christ and their property should not be robbed, except in cases of crimes truly worthy of condemnation and execution. Saint Justin wrote down this royal command; released by the king, he, with his permission, went to Asia, where Christians were then especially subject to persecution. In philosophical clothes, which he did not leave until his death, Justin came to Ephesus 3555, announced and explained to everyone the king’s command and sent him to the surrounding countries and cities. There was silence in the Church of Christ, the persecution stopped for a while, and there was great joy for the faithful. While in Ephesus, Saint Justin had a debate with the wise Jewish rabbi Tryphon and won, citing the Old Testament Scripture; about this debate, as well as about the above-mentioned apology, there is a lengthy word in the book of Justin 3556. Having spent quite some time in Ephesus, he returned to Italy again and, following the example of the Apostles, preached Christ everywhere along the way, converted Jews and Greeks to the holy faith through debate, and confirmed the faithful in it. When he came to Rome, the above-mentioned Hellenic philosopher Crescent the Cynic rebelled against him with the strongest hatred and great malice; Saint Justin often had debates with him, always prevailed over him and put him to shame before everyone. Unable to resist Justin and not knowing what else to do, the evil Crescent brought many false accusations against him before the Roman court. They took the saint and, as guilty of punishment, tortured him in chains and tortured him in court; but there was no guilt in him. The envious man, fearing that Justin would not be released, secretly prepared a mortal poison, through which he fraudulently took the life of the invincible warrior of Christ. Thus died 3557 the true Christian philosopher Saint Justin, leaving behind many writings that were very useful to the Church of Christ and filled with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit 3558. Presenting himself to the hero Christ the Lord, he received from Him the crown of suffering and was numbered among the holy martyrs, glorifying the Holy Trinity, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, forever, amen. Through the wisdom of your Divine words, Justina, the Church of God, having become all adorned, illuminates the world with your lordship: the outpouring for the sake of the blood crown is received, and with the Angels standing before Christ, pray unceasingly for all of us. After the conquest of Palestine by the Romans (1st century AD). The founder of Stoic teaching is Zeno (III century BC); it was primarily practical and had the goal of teaching mastery over passions and indifference in all circumstances of life. Peripatetics - followers of Aristotle (IV century BC); they taught that all knowledge originates from experience. The nature of the teachings of Pythagoras (5th century BC) is visible from the instructions of the Pythagorean to Justin. Plato (IV century BC) recognized the innate concepts of God, truth and goodness, the independence of the existence of the soul, etc. His teaching is closer to Christian than other ancient philosophical teachings. The sophists denied the possibility of positive knowledge of things and took on the task of proving any thought, even a false one. Hence sophistry is the correct conclusion from a false foundation. Sibyls were predictors of the future among the Greeks and Romans. The predictions attributed to them indicate quite clearly the various circumstances of the Savior’s earthly life. Rome is the main city of the Roman state, lies in the middle part of Italy on both sides of the Tiber River, where it flows into the sea. Marcion belonged to the heretics - the Gnostics and taught that the visible world was created not by God, but by His lower powers; He rejected the Old Testament. The Cynics (the founder of the doctrine was Antiseen of the 4th century BC) took the doctrine of simplicity in life to the extreme, rejecting science, art and all external culture. There are two known apologies for St. Justina: the first, not earlier than 150 and containing 68 chapters, he tried to bring Christians the patronage of Emperor Antoninus; the second (written around 162) was to incite Marcus Aurelius to treat Christians more meekly. In his apologies, Justin the philosopher speaks “on behalf of the unjustly hated and persecuted Christians.” The valiant men who, during the time of severe persecution of Christians in the 2nd and 3rd centuries, appeared before the Roman government and society as literary defenders of Christians and denouncers of paganism, are known in the history of the church under the name of apologists - that is, defenders, and their writings are generally called apologies. The following apologists are known in the history of the Christian church; in the East: Aristides, Kodrat, Meliton, bishop. Sardinian, Tatian, Athenogenes, Miltiades, St. Theophilus, bishop Antiochian; in the West: Minucius Felix, Quintus Septimius Tertullian, Arnobius, Lactantius and St. Cyprian, bishop Carthaginian Ephesus is the main city of the Asia Minor province of Asia; located on the Kaistra River. Currently, on the site of the ancient city of Ephesus there is a poor Turkish village called Seysya-Selyuk. "Conversation with Tryphon the Jew." In addition to those mentioned, the ancients knew the works of St. Justina: “Note on the Soul”, as well as: “Reproach against the Hellenes”, “Speech against the Hellenes”, which contained a denunciation of paganism. Saint John of Damascus preserved a significant part of Justin’s work “On the Resurrection” that has not reached us. The famous church historian Eusebius claims that Justin wrote the book “The Singer,” “The Denunciation of All Former Heresies,” and the book “Against Marcion.” Justin the philosopher himself, in his first apology, mentions his work against heresies. The most remarkable work of Justin the philosopher was an essay - a dialogue against the Jews entitled “Conversation with Tryphon the Jew.” You might be interested in: