May: Day 31:
Holy Martyr Hermias
(On the Power of the Sign of the Cross)
By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko
Holy Martyr Hermias
(On the Power of the Sign of the Cross)
By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko
I. When the Holy Martyr Hermias, whose memory is celebrated today, emerged unharmed from the fiery furnace into which he had been thrown by the torturers, then the governor called a sorcerer and ordered that he be poisoned. Hermias took the poison, having prayed beforehand and made the sign of the cross over the cup, and remained alive. Thus the words of the Savior were fulfilled in him, Who said of believers: "And if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them" (Mark 16:18).
II. The incident from the history of the sufferings of the Holy Martyr Hermias, just related, may remind us, brethren, of the power of the sign of the cross, with which we must protect ourselves with faith, reverence and the fear of God in all cases of our life.
a) The sign of the cross makes us inaccessible to the original murderer – the devil. The devil, seeing the image of the cross we make, bounces off us like a tense arrow. The demons themselves involuntarily confessed to Cyprian the sorcerer, who had communication with them, saying: “We cannot look at the sign of the cross, but we run from it; for it, like fire, scorches us and drives us far away.”
The confession of the demons in their impotence against the sign of the cross was soon proven in reality, when Cyprian the sorcerer decided to renounce Satan and turn to Christ. The devil, noticing Cyprian's betrayal of him, attacked him with fury and began to torment him; but as soon as Cyprian raised his hand and crossed himself, the devil immediately fled from him and, despite his rage, could no longer harm him.
Symeon the Stylite, relying on the words of the devil, who appeared to him in the form of an angel of light with a chariot of fire and horses of fire, as if sent by God to take him, like Elijah, to heaven for the holiness of his life, wanted to step with his right foot onto the chariot of fire, but before he extended it, he protected himself with the sign of the cross: the devil with the chariot and horses then immediately disappeared like dust, scattered by the wind.
b) While driving away the invisible enemy, the sign of the cross also helps to overcome and defeat visible enemies. How did the Equal-to-the-Apostles Emperor Constantine defeat Emperor Maxentius, who had come out against him with an incomparably larger and more select army? Was it not by the power of the cross? A heavenly phenomenon clearly pointed out to him the cross as a victory banner, with words composed of star-shaped letters: "By this you will conquer."
Saint Nikon, the son of an idolater and a Christian, served as an officer in a Roman regiment in Naples before his conversion to Christianity. Once, during a battle between the Romans and the barbarians, in the heat of the battle for the fatherland, he went into the midst of the enemy. Seeing that he was about to fall from the arrows of the enemy, the fearless warrior remembered the admonition of his mother and, fixing his eyes on heaven, armed himself with the sign of the cross. "Jesus Almighty!" he exclaimed, "show Your power at this hour, that I may be Your servant!” This voice of faith struck the host of the enemy like thunder: eighty enemy soldiers fell under the blows of Nikon and he emerged harmless.
c) Finally, the sign of the cross is the protection of our body, our physical life, it is the defense of our property, it is the power that tames passions, extinguishes carnal lusts. Saint Chrysostom writes: "The sign of the cross extinguishes poisonous charms, takes away the destructive power of the past, heals the bite of poisonous beasts." Gregory of Sinai says: "The cross is the guardian of the soul and body, the destruction of passions, the driver away of thoughts, the nailing of the flesh."
Saint Julian, who had been elevated to the episcopal throne in Bostra, was intended to be killed by some citizens who hated the name of Christ. They bribed his servant and he gave the Saint a poisoned drink, but Saint Julian took the deadly drink in his hands, crossed himself three times and, saying: "In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit," drank it and remained unharmed. Something similar happened to the first martyr Thekla: having protected herself with the sign of the cross, she remained unharmed amidst the flames lit by order of the torturer, remained untouched by hungry and enraged lions and bears, and emerged from a pit filled with various reptiles, snakes and serpents, unharmed by them.
The sign of the cross also preserves our property in its integrity. In his youth, the Venerable Ioannikios tended his parents' livestock, and out of love for theology, he often left the flock to pray in a secluded place, but when leaving, he always blessed his flock with the sign of the cross, and the flock did not disperse until his return, and was not plundered by beasts or thieves.
The inhabitants of the seaside city of Epidaurus were threatened with obvious destruction: the sea once became so raging that the waves rose on it like mountains, and were ready to flood the entire area; but, through the prayers of the Venerable Hilarion, who stood between the city and the sea, they could not go further than the place where he had drawn three crosses in the sand. Thus, by the sign of the cross our physical life and our external property are protected from everything harmful.
But the sign of the cross serves as no less a protection for our soul. The Holy Martyr Justina, a virgin, when lustful thoughts were born in her by the action of the demon of fornication, and carnal lust flared up in her, immediately protected herself with the sign of the cross, crying out in her heart for help to the Lord Jesus, and peace was restored in Justina’s body and heart, carnal lust died out, and the blood calmed down. So important and beneficial is the sign of the cross, when performed not just routinely, but with faith, reverence and the fear of God.
According to the faith of those who are marked by the true and correct cross, the same thing is happening now as was done in the early times of Christianity. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, and forever. All things are possible for the believer. Only today's false thinkers do not want to see the actions of grace in anything, but attribute everything either to natural forces, or to a coincidence, or to blind chance.
III. Let us not forget, brethren, to make the sign of the honorable cross on ourselves with faith, reverence and fear of God, and to do so according to the establishment of the Orthodox Church in all cases of our life!
Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
