Житие и страдание святого священномученика Протерия, патриарха Александрийского

After the death of Saint Cyril, the heretic Dioscorus entered the patriarchal throne of Alexandria in 1662 in 1663. This wicked man spread his heresy throughout Egypt. At that time, there lived one pious presbyter, firm in the true faith, named Proterius. He was known for the holiness of his life and was filled with divinely inspired intelligence and wisdom. Proterius saw that many had deviated into the heresy of the patriarch, who falsely asserted that in Christ there is one nature, and strongly opposed the heretics. Patriarch Dioscorus was very angry with him; Wanting to win over this defender of Orthodoxy to his like-mindedness, he insidiously caressed Proterius and even honored him with the rank of protopresbyter, but his efforts were unsuccessful. Saint Proterius, confirmed in the faith by His Holiness Patriarch Cyril of Alexandria, was unshakable. At the Fourth Ecumenical Council, which took place in Chalcedon under King Marcian in 1664, Dioscorus was convicted of his heresy, was deprived of his patriarchal rank, excommunicated from the Church and expelled to the Paphlagonian region in 1665 to the city of Gangra, where after some time he died. Instead of the deposed Dioscorus, in Alexandria, Saint Proterius, truly worthy of such a rank, was elected to the patriarchal throne by the Orthodox bishops, clergy and pious Christians. But the majority of the Alexandrian people, drunk with the poison of the heresy of Dioscorus, incited, moreover, by some heretical clerics, was against the decree of Proterius by the patriarch. And when Saint Proterius, appointed Orthodox patriarch, took over the government and began to profess the right faith, approved by the holy fathers at the Council of Chalcedon, a rebellion occurred among the people and strife broke out. Some of the clergy, led by Presbyter Timothy, nicknamed Elur, and Deacon Peter Mong, proteges of Dioscorov and supporters of his heresy, along with others, renounced the Orthodox, did not want to have communion with Saint Proterius, and created a schism among the people. Therefore, great discord occurred in the Alexandrian Church: some recognized the newly installed patriarch and adhered to Orthodoxy, while others demanded the return of Dioscorus and cursed the dogmas established at the Council of Chalcedon. Both sides fought hard against each other. The adherents of Dioscorus rebelled against Saint Proterius, called him an adulterer, for even during the life of Dioscorus he accepted his bride, the Church of Alexandria, and called Proterius a heretic, unworthy of the rank of patriarch. Saint Proterius suffered many troubles from heretics; fearing that the heretics would kill him, he demanded military protection; he was always in fear, expecting popular unrest, for the followers of Dioscorus were already rebelling against the city leaders and the army that was in the city. At this time, the consul from Thebaid arrived in Alexandria to pacify the unrest. The rebels began to throw stones at the soldiers who had arrived with the consul. The latter, seeing the popular uprising, went to the church of Serapidis and shut themselves up in it. The rebels surrounded the church and, taking it, burned all the soldiers who were in it. When news of this reached the pious King Marcian, he became very angry and sent a great military force and pacified the excitement, ordering that the bread and livestock that were brought to Alexandria on ships from the cities of Egypt, from now on be sent not to Alexandria, but to Pilusia, and from there to Constantinople. In addition, Marcian took away the public baths and other lands from the Alexandrians, limited the freedom of the inhabitants, and closed their former folk performances. The citizens, grieving over this and mainly feeling the lack of bread, humbled themselves and asked the most holy Patriarch Proterius to go to the king and ask him for them. Saint Proterius, having gone, interceded with the king about his city, and the king, having mercy, fulfilled all the requests of the holy man. The citizens were restored to their former freedom, and grain began to be delivered directly to Alexandria. After this, the patriarch peacefully ruled his flock for some time and committed Timothy Elur, who did not want to repent, to eruption. After the death of the pious Marcian, the heretics again raised their heads and began to excite the common people, and stopped only when they achieved their goal. The cunning and crafty Timothy Elur, who also practiced sorcery, cunningly deceived the Egyptian monks who lived in monasteries or labored in the desert in the following way. On a dark, moonless night, Timothy, dressed in dark clothes, began to go around the monks’ cells and called each one by name. When the monks asked him who he was and what he needed, he answered: – I am one of the Angels, sent from God so that you do not have communication with Proterius and do not accept the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon. You must appoint Timothy Elur as bishop of Alexandria. So the cunning flatterer, with the help of a demon, deceived them. The monks, not understanding the machinations of the enemy, accepted the lie as the truth and, telling each other about the vision of the Angel, agreed and all gathered together. After consulting, they all went to Alexandria - as if to fight; they were all blinded by rage against the holy bishop Proterius and wanted to expel him from the church. At that time Timothy in Alexandria gathered around him many rebels; He seduced some, and secretly gave money to others. Having waited for a convenient time, when the consul Dionysius was not in the city - he stayed in Upper Egypt - Timothy, with numerous like-minded people, with an armed army hired by him, and with the monks who came, went to the church. Among the rebels were two deposed bishops and several clergy, also excommunicated. They ordained Timothy as a bishop and named him Patriarch of Alexandria. He did this contrary to all church rules, despising all the royal laws, relying only on the rebellious people and the seduced monks. His Holiness Patriarch Proterius, seeing such a rebellion and not having help from anyone, due to the absence of a consul, decided to flee. Secretly at night he left the city. When he fell asleep in a hidden place, the prophet Isaiah appeared to him in a dream and said: - Return to the city, there I will wait for you! Reflecting on the vision, Proterius realized that he was facing martyrdom. He returned and entered the church baptismal room. Meanwhile, the rebels, wanting to kill Saint Proterius, looked for him everywhere. Having learned that he was in the baptismal room, they locked him there. Then some of them came to him and killed him and the 6 people who were with him, while torturing the entire body of the saint with the sharp tips of the iron rods that the tormentors carried with them. They shed innocent blood at the very time when our Passover, Christ, was sacrificed for us; the murder was committed on Holy Saturday. But the killers were not satisfied with blood and extended their cruelty even further. Having tied ropes to the feet of the martyr of Christ, they dragged his holy body into the middle of the city, and struck him with various weapons, tearing him to pieces. Some, even in the greatest rage, like dogs or wild animals, sank their teeth into his body. Having built a large fire, they burned the body of the sufferer of Christ, and scattered his ashes into the air in 1666. At the same time, at the command of their false patriarch Timothy, they even burned the bishop's throne, on which Saint Proterius sat, as if desecrated by a holy man; So the nasty and wicked declared the saint of God godless. After the inhumane murder of Saint Proterius, Timothy sent his soldiers to all the cities of Egypt to expel the Orthodox bishops, and in their place to install others whom he himself would appoint. Then the oppressed Orthodox bishops and clergy and all the faithful sent a petition to the pious King Leo, who ascended the throne after Marcian; The Orthodox sent the same petition to His Holiness Anatoly, Patriarch of Constantinople; in their petitions they told about everything that had happened and tearfully asked to save the Alexandrian Church from such a disaster. The tsar and patriarch greatly regretted the inhuman murder of the holy, innocent bishop of God, Proterius. The king immediately sent his dignitaries with an army to Alexandria, and many of the rebels were executed: some had their hands cut off, others had their tongues cut out, some were imprisoned, others were beaten and expelled. Timothy Elur himself, the false patriarch, was brought to trial. Condemned by the Orthodox bishops, he accepted retribution for his deeds: they not only deprived him of his bishopric, but even expelled him from the Church of Christ and sent him to be imprisoned in the city of Gangra, where his teacher Dioscorus was once imprisoned. Instead of him, another Timothy, nicknamed Salofakiol, was elevated to the patriarchate in Alexandria. He was distinguished by his strong faith, wisdom and virtuous life, for which he was respected by everyone. And peace came to the Alexandrian Church, which from that time began, with all the Orthodox, to praise the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the One God in the Trinity. Amen. Alexandria is a famous city founded by Alexander the Great around 333 BC on a cape protruding into the southern shore of the Mediterranean Sea (slightly south of the current city of the same name); was once the center of science and the first trading city on earth; at the beginning of the 4th century it became the center of Christianity and the seat of the patriarch. Dioscorus was the main supporter of the heresy of the Constantinople archimandrite Eutyches; the latter argued that Christ, although born from two natures, does not dwell in two, since during the incarnation of God the Word, the human nature He assumed lost all its own reality and was absorbed by the Divine. In the history of the Church, the heresy of Eutyches is known under the name of Monophysitism (Monophysites are like-minded people). The Council of Chalcedon (451), as an expression of Orthodox truth on the issue of the union of two natures in Christ, compiled a definition according to which Christ is confessed as perfect God and perfect Man, consubstantial with the Father in divinity and consubstantial with us in humanity, abiding even after the incarnation in two natures, unfused and inseparable, so that the peculiarity of each nature is preserved when they are united in the one person of Christ. Paphlagonia is a rugged, mountainous region in the northern part of Asia Minor. Saint Proterius died as a martyr in 467, during the reign of Leo the Great. You might be interested in: