Страдание святого мученика Дулы

While the sons of the devil served him, and idolatrous magic and delusion became more and more intensified, during the reign of Cilicia 3941 hegemon Maximus, a certain servant of Christ named Dula 3942, a husband of the same Cilician region, was condemned before this ruler. He was a righteous and God-fearing man, and according to popular testimony, he tried to lead a virtuous life and observe the truth in everything. One day it was reported to the hegemon that Dula was a confessor of the Christian faith, and after that the servant of Christ was immediately thrown into prison; at the same time, notary 3943 said to the hegemon: “Governor, in accordance with your orders, your military leaders went around the entire Cilician country to the very Zephyrite cities 3944, and during this time they captured a certain follower of the wicked Christian faith, and it is he who we have now presented to your righteous and blessed court. “When I myself go around these cities, I will order the prisoners who are now in prison to lead me and during this time along the road, in places specially arranged for this purpose, I will torture them. And soon after that he went to one of the cities of the Zephyrite country, called Praetoriada 3945; here the hegemon, sitting down at the seat of judgment, first of all ordered that blessed Dulu be presented to him. The servant of Christ, going to torture, prayed to the Lord like this: “Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the source of all mercy, You once said through Your prophet David: “Open your mouth and I will fill them” (Ps. 80:11); Yes, and in Your Gospel You say: “Do not worry how or what to say” (Matthew 10:19), - and so send Your holy Angel and give me the word when I speak, so that, appearing before the most wicked Maximus, I can expose his wickedness; and if I have to suffer, I will not be afraid of torment, for I will have You before my eyes and will willingly hand over my body to be tortured: after all, if I do not hand over my body to be burned, then what blessings can I be worthy of? What crown will I receive? And then what kind of wounds can I show You, my Lord, so that You, seeing them, would show Your mercy on me and grant forgiveness for my sins?” When Dula prayed like this, the soldiers took off his outer clothing and presented him bound to the hegemon. And hegemon Maxim said to him: - Tell me, what is your nickname? - Tell us your real name, not your Christian name: this name cannot bring you any justification or relief. Then blessed Dula said: “Don’t I clearly state my name in front of you?” My true name is Christian; the same name that people call me is Dula, and I am so called because I truly am a servant of Christ. “You have not yet experienced the fear of the judgment seat and any torment, that’s why you speak to us so boldly.” So, tell us: what country are you from, what village and family are you from? - I come from this Cilician region, from the Zephyrite city - Praetoria; I come from a noble family and from a very young age I have already been considered a Christian. - If you come from a glorious family, then you must obey the invincible kings; and therefore now go to the church and with zeal make a sacrifice there to the gods, and then you will be exalted from us, and you will receive great and glorious honor from the great kings. – Let your honors and all the power that kings bestow on people remain with you and with all those who do not honor the true God; May the Lord my God turn all this away from me, so that I may be enriched in nothing other than faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Hearing these words of the blessed one, the hegemon ordered to put him on the ground and beat him with iron rods; at the same time he said to his servants: - Convince him to give up his madness. Saint Dula, suffering from blows, cried out to the Lord at that time: “I thank You, Christ, that You have made me worthy to endure all this for the sake of Your holy name!” Hearing such words of the martyr, Maxim began to reproach Saint Dulu and at the same time spoke to him like this: - How can Christ help you now when you are all ulcerated? Or is this something you still can’t understand, crazy person? – Didn’t the teacher of our faith, the holy Apostle Paul, say that no one can be crowned “if he strives unlawfully” (2 Tim. 2:5). Then the hegemon asked him: - So, if you are tormented now, will you be awarded the crown later? “I am now struggling against your father the devil, and if I defeat the army of Satan, that is, over you, the servant of the demon, then I will receive an imperishable crown in heaven.” - Why are you so crazy, believing in a Man nailed to the cross? To this Saint Dula replied: “Which is better: to believe in stone and wooden idols, which are the work of human hands, or in the living God-Man and in the true Lord, Who was crucified for us by His will?” - O lawless one! Do you think that the great god Apollo 3946 is the work of human hands? “You rightly called Apollo by this name, for it means destroyer 3947: by attaching your heart to him, you destroy your soul, and not only your own, but also those whom you force to worship him; but know that the true God who dwells in heaven will exact from your hands the souls of those people whom you destroyed by forcing them to worship idols. What kind of wicked Apollo was - I’ll tell you about this now: he was, like you now, incontinent and embraced by unclean love for one wife named Daphne 3948; he gave her a lot of gold, but did not receive what was promised from her. So, I ask you: tell me, what kind of god is he if, being overwhelmed by carnal love, he could not achieve the favor of that woman whom he loved very much? How can you rely on him for anything? Truly, all this that is being told between you is worthy of laughter, and much is worthy even of crying: in fact, tell me, do you worship that Apollo as a god, whom even the vile and full of all uncleanness harlot considered for nothing and spat on his face? You see how lamentable your wicked deeds are! Hearing this, Maxim said to the servants beating the martyr: – Turn him on his back and hit him in the stomach. Then Athanasius, the chief of the military guard, said to the saint: - Obey the ruler, - don’t you feel how your whole body is covered with wounds? “Listen better to me, adviser to the devil and his servant, and better advise yourself and your hegemon - how to quickly convince the harlot Daphne so that she agrees to live fornicately with your god Apollo and fulfill his desire, so that he, inflamed by love and not receiving the fulfillment of his desire, would not die a cruel death - I have one adviser - our Lord Jesus Christ. Then the torturer ordered an iron board to be brought and said to the servants: “Heat it hotter on the fire and put this blasphemer of our gods here.” The blessed one, hearing this, said: “Your Apollo, who is in Gehenna, thanks you for the fact that you are further intensifying the fire of Gehenna in which he now suffers; he will reward you for this by the fact that you, together with him, will be cast into utter darkness - then I will laugh at you, wicked benefactor of Apollo. When those who tormented the blessed one, almost completely burning him, still achieved nothing, and could neither seduce the servant of God with flattering advice, nor convince him with torment to abandon his faith in Christ, then the hegemon ordered the soldiers to take the saint, already so exhausted, to a separate prison room and leave him there completely alone, without any care for him - and at the same time he added: - Let none of the wicked Christians call him blessed, for, having lawlessly outraged our gods, now he has undergone great torment. But Saint Dula remained in that prison, constantly praising God and praying that He would allow him to accomplish the good feat of martyrdom. After five days, Maxim sat down again in the judgment seat and asked: – Is the all-evil follower of wicked Christian wisdom alive? Bring him here! Military leader Afanasy responded to this: “He is very firm in his confession of his teachings and, at the same time, is so cheerful that it is as if he does not have a single wound on his body. And at the same time he ordered the martyr to be brought in. The hegemon, seeing that the whole body of Saint Dula was unharmed and that his face was shining, said to the soldiers: - O damned guards! Did I not order you not to treat him or take care of him? To this Pigasius, the chief of notaries, replied: - We swear by your Majesty that, according to your command, we kept him in the inner part of the prison and that the iron image of Hercules 3949, weighing three hundred liters 3950, hung on his neck all the time; how he is now completely healthy - none of us knows. Then the holy martyr said: - Mad hegemon! It is my Christ who healed me and gave my body health and strength to endure even those torments that you will now subject me to again; and He did this so that you would know that our God is a Physician who miraculously heals those who trust in Him, and also so that you would receive the extreme crown of martyrdom, and you would be subject to extreme eternal torment; After all, if you had endured such torment for the sake of your Apollo, would this God of yours have been able to heal you in the same way as my Christ healed me? To this the hegemon, enraged, replied: - Since this man does not cease to blaspheme our gods with malice, pour oil on his head and light it. - If you burn my brain, what will you achieve? Better invent other torments. The hegemon then ordered many mustard seeds to be placed in the nostrils of the martyr. Then Saint Dula said: – I laugh even now at all your tortures! After this, the hegemon ordered the servants to hit the saint on the ridge as hard as possible with iron claws, and at the same time pour strong vinegar on his sores and rub them with sharp shards. When all this, by order of Maxim, was accomplished, the holy passion-bearer prayed thus: - Lord Jesus Christ! Present yourself to me, Your servant; behold, “on my ridge the oratai shouted, they made their long furrows” (Ps. 129:3). - Although now be convinced and confess our gods! Saint Dula responded to this: - May your gods, and especially Aphrodite 3951 and Artemis 3952, help you and your malice; if you want, I will tell you about your other goddesses and about all their shamelessness. After that, the hegemon ordered the servants: “Break his jaws so that he does not blaspheme the gods, and, breaking his legs, leave him so that he cannot say a word.” To this the holy martyr said: - O most lawless hegemon! Why are you beating me, if I am telling you the truth, that your Aphrodite and other goddesses spent their lives in vile lusts, fornication, and even in their dispute about which of them was more voluptuous, they once appointed some shepherd Paris 3953 as a judge over themselves, and why are you angry when they tell you about the most vile deeds of your vile goddesses? Only my God is true: He wanted to become a man and was crucified on the cross, then he was buried, three days later he was resurrected and sat down at the right hand of God the Father, so that later he would come with fire - in order to consume all your gods! Hearing this, the hegemon said to the saint: “You see, you damned one, do you have two Gods?” The blessed one responded: - Do not sin and do not be mistaken in speaking about two Gods: the Trinity is the Deity that we worship. - So, you have three Gods, then? – I confess and honor the Trinity: I believe in the Father, I confess the Son and I worship the Holy Spirit. After this the hegemon said: – Tell me how you believe in one God, but confess three? To this the holy martyr responded as follows: – Although you are a carnal man and do not understand the things “of the Spirit of God” (1 Cor. 2:11), however, for the sake of the people ahead, I will answer your question. Just as you, being a man, have word and breath, so the omnipotent God the Father has His Word and His all-holy Spirit; This our God first created man and honored him in His image, breathing into him the spirit of life, and settled him in paradise; but when Satan, now fulfilling his will through you, forced man to transgress the commandments of God, as he is now doing through you - and thus tore him away from fulfilling the commandments of God - then God, wanting to restore the lost creation of His hands and lead him to the true path, sent His Son to earth, that is, the Word; and so, this Word of God dwelt in the Most Pure Virgin and was born from Her - through Him God the Father gave salvation to the world. After this, the hegemon asked: – Does any word give birth to a person? “You don’t understand the mysteries of God.” But if you knew the power of the omnipotent God, you would understand that He who created man from the dust and founded the earth on the waters, established the heavens and created all nature - that He is precisely Christ. But since human nature cannot mature the Divinity, therefore the merciful Lord, because of His love for the human race, became man and took upon Himself human nature, so that - just as death entered the world through the one primordial man, so through the one Man Our Lord Jesus Christ the resurrection of the dead would occur (Rom. 5:13). -What are you saying? Will there be a resurrection of the dead? To this the holy martyr replied: - Yes, it will be; Otherwise, how will God judge the world if the dead do not rise? “I don’t want you to tell me these false words; so, believe me; As soon as we die, we will lie dead. “You said the truth,” answered the martyr, “that you are dead, for you believe in dead idols, and therefore you will never come to the resurrection of the belly, but you will only enter the resurrection of judgment and eternal torment; but it is only fitting for all people to appear before the judgment seat of Christ and give an answer for everything they have done (2 Cor. 5:10). Then the tormentor ordered the soldiers to bind the martyr with iron shackles and keep him prisoner in prison. The next day, early in the morning, Maxim again ordered the servant of God Dulu to be brought to trial, and when the martyr appeared, he told him: “O wicked one, what good does it do you to blaspheme our gods?” The blessed one answered him: “I receive a great reward from my God when I rebuke your gods; and the execution of God will overtake you while still alive. Then Maxim, wishing to desecrate the saint with a sacrifice, said to the upcoming servants; “Put the sacrificial meat and wine into his mouth.” After this the blessed one said: “If you wash out your entire godless altar and pour it all into my mouth, then even then you will not defile the servant of God in the least.” To this the torturer exclaimed: - Look, damned man, you have already tasted the sacrificial offerings from our altars! The holy martyr responded to this: “All this does not dishonor me at all, vile and insane ruler.” Then the hegemon ordered the saint to be hanged on a tree and his body to be whittled down to the insides, and his jaws, along with his throat, to be completely torn off. After this the holy martyr said: “You fool, don’t you know that your father Satan taught you to do this?” When the martyr's body was ulcerated to the bones and his jaws were torn off, the hegemon ordered him to be put in prison again; then, setting off for Tarsus of Cilicia 3954, Maxim ordered the prisoner to follow him. When they had gone about twenty miles 3955, the holy martyr Dula, protecting himself with the sign of the cross, betrayed his suffering soul to the Lord, and he was taken away already dead. When they were fourteen miles from Tarsus, the commentary 3956 announced to the hegemon that Dula, who had dishonorably reproached the gods, had already died and now his dead body was being carried: what should be done with it? The hegemon ordered the body to be thrown into a deep ditch so that it would remain without burial. The soldiers, taking the body of the saint, threw him into the river flowing into the Zephyrite country. And when the body sailed to some village located not far from the city of Pretornada, and lay there on the shore, the dogs of the local shepherds sensed the body of the saint and one of the dogs, guarding it, did not allow a single bird to touch the body of the martyr; another dog, taking the shepherd's robe in its teeth, brought it and covered the relics of the martyr. Seeing this, the shepherds told everything in the village and city, and immediately many faithful people went to the relics of the holy martyr and piously received them, thanking God for not depriving them of such a precious treasure. Having reverently taken the body of the holy martyr, they buried him with honor, glorifying our Lord Jesus Christ, glorified with the Father and the Holy Spirit forever. Amen. Cilicia was in ancient times the southeastern region of Asia Minor, which probably received its name from the Semitic tribe of Cilicians and early attracted Greek settlers with its fertility. A notary is an official whose duties, among other things, were to monitor the exact execution of laws in the courts, and junior notaries conducted correspondence on such matters. Those. - all the way to the district of the Cilician seaside city of Zephyria. Praetoria is actually one of the towns in Cilicia, not far from the city of Zephyria. Apollo, in Greek. mythology, the god of light, and specifically of sunlight, with all its beneficial and harmful influences. The word Apollo comes from the Greek verb: ..., which means: to destroy, to kill. Daphne, in Greek mythology, daughter of the river god Ladon and Gaia (earth), simultaneously loved by both Apollo and Leucippus. The latter, disguised as a girl, followed Daphne among her friends, but was killed by Apollo. Then Daphne's mother, Gaia, turned her into a laurel tree. Hercules, or Heraclius. Heraclius is the national Greek. hero - was considered by the ancients to be the ideal of physical strength and power. A liter was equal to our 72 spools. Consequently, a weight of more than 5 pounds hung on the martyr’s neck. Aphrodite is the Greek name for Venus, the goddess of love. Celebrations in honor of her are called that. – Aphrodisias took place in many places in Greece and Asia Minor. Artemis - in Greek. mythology, the daughter of Zeus and Lethe, was the goddess of light and the moon, which is why she, as the goddess of light, was given a bow and arrow as attributes, and as the goddess of the night - a torch. According to Greek mythology, Paris's parents left him, while still a child, to fend for himself. But he was raised in their environment by shepherds. One day, three goddesses came to him - Aphrodite, Hera and Athena and asked him to resolve their dispute - which of them was more beautiful. Paris found Aphrodite the most beautiful of them all. Tarsus is the main city of Cilicia, Asia Minor region; in the Christian church it is especially known as the birthplace of St. Apostle Paul (Acts 22:3). According to our measures, the distance of the field is approximately 690 fathoms. Commentary - the head of prisons. You might be interested in: