June: Day 18: Teaching 2: Holy Martyr Leontios of Tripoli

June: Day 18: Teaching 2:
Holy Martyr Leontios of Tripoli

(The Conquering Power of Christian Kindness)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Holy Martyr Leontios, whose memory is celebrated today, was a Greek, served as a commander in the Roman army under Emperor Vespasian and lived in the city of Tripoli, near Mount Lebanon. He professed the Christian faith. This is how he was awarded the crown of martyrdom from the pagans together with two warriors, Christians, Hypatios and Theodoulos. Hadrian, a Roman dignitary, a zealot of paganism and an enemy of Christianity, went to Phoenicia to persecute Christians there. Having learned about Leontios, who himself rejected idols and turned others away from worshiping them, Hadrian sent the tribune Hypatios with soldiers after him. Near the city Leontios himself met them with his soldiers and, promising to show them whom they were looking for, invited them to his house for rest, offered them a meal, received them with the same cordiality with which we receive our dear friends, and after the meal announced that he himself was Leontios, a friend not of the pagan gods, but of the Christian. Then Hypatios and the soldier Theodoulos fell at his feet and said: "We too want to be Christians." Leontios prayed; suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed Hypatios and Theodoulos, and rain fell on them from the cloud. Saint Leontios called upon the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and thus baptized them.

But Hadrian himself arrived in Tripoli and became very angry with Leontios, Hypatios and Theodoulos. "Who are you and by what magical means did you turn the faithful royal servants from paganism to Christianity?" Hadrian asked Leontios. "I am a warrior of Christ and a son of the Light that enlightens every man. I am the son of the Lord." "And why did you renounce the traditions of your fathers and betray the king?" Hadrian also asked Hypatios and Theodoulos. "Because we have received a much better reward from the King of Heaven," they answered. Hadrian ordered that they all be cruelly tortured, and then Hypatios and Theodoulos were killed with a sword, and Leontios was beaten so hard that he died under the blows.

II. In this story you see, my brethren, the power of Christian kindness, which conquers the most rude, the most callous pagan enemies.

This Christian kindness greatly contributed to the success of the spread of Christian teachings among the pagans.

It is amazing how quickly the Christian faith spread in the early days of Christianity. “Look, we have existed only since yesterday and already we fill everything: your cities, islands, fortresses, palaces, senates, camps, courts; we leave you only your temples,” wrote the Christian writer of the late 2nd century, the famous scholar Tertullian, to the Roman Senate in his apology, or defense speech in favor of Christians.

They explain such rapid successes of Christianity among the pagans by the height of Christian teaching, and the emptiness of paganism, and the special zeal of Christian preachers, and the steadfastness of Christian martyrs in their suffering for the faith, and the miracles that were performed in those times among believers.

All this is true, but at the same time, the very life of Christians, filled with love, was of no small importance; kindness and gentleness not only in relation to their own faithful, but also in relation to strangers, outsiders - in relation to non-believers. This heartfelt kindness of the first Christians, their broad love for everyone, as a special force in the matter of spreading the Christian faith, was pointed out in his time by the cruel persecutor of Christians, the apostate, the Roman Emperor Julian. "Pay attention to the fact that nothing contributes so much to the success of the superstition of Christians as the love they show to everyone," Julian wrote to one of the pagan priests, advising him on what, in his opinion, could be done to raise paganism in its impotent struggle with Christianity. "I think," he continued, "that we too should adopt this quality from the Christians. So, establish hospitals and hospices in every city; for you will be ashamed if we neglect our poor, whereas these impious Galileans (as the apostate from Christianity called Christians) feed not only the poor, who are their own by faith, but even ours." But could the philanthropy of a pagan, philanthropy by command, cold, artificially heated, compare with the philanthropy, the kindness of Christians, based on the deep inner principles of Christian love? Could paganism represent even in a few individuals such a height of selfless love for one's neighbors as, for example, the Egyptian Christians represented during the plague that raged in Alexandria, Egypt, in the second half of the 3rd century? Having noticed that this plague was most raging among the pagans, the Church historian Eusebius, in the words of Bishop Dionysius, a contemporary of the disaster, says: “Then very many of our brethren, from an excess of love and brotherly love, did not spare themselves, but, supporting one another, fearlessly visited their relatives, tirelessly followed them and, serving them for Christ’s sake, joyfully died together with them, attracting illness to themselves from their neighbors... They received the bodies of the saints (Christians) on outstretched arms and chests, closed their eyes, closed their mouths, carried them on their shoulders, pressed them to themselves and embraced them, adorned them with washings and clothes, and soon they themselves were honored with the same... The pagans acted completely opposite," the historian continues, "they drove away those who began to fall ill, ran away from their most beloved, threw them out into the street half-dead, left the dead unburied, and thus tried to get rid of the transmitted and communicating death, which, however, with all their efforts, was not easy for them to turn away from themselves" ("Ecclesiastical History", Eusebius. vol. I, bk. 7, ch. 22). Could paganism present such a work of philanthropy as, for example, the Christians of the Asia Minor city of Amida, who, on the advice of their shepherd, Bishop Akakios, sold church vessels and ransomed 7,000 Persian prisoners captured by the Roman troops, who were tormenting them in grievous captivity? It is not surprising that the Persian king was amazed at such kindness of the Amida Christians and wanted to look at their bishop Akakios as if he were seeing a miracle.

III. This is how we, brethren, must soften the rough, stubborn hearts of others and incline them to holy truth and goodness. Not with anger and abuse, not with cruelty and beatings, but with kind words, courtesy, sympathy, kindness, conquer your ill-wishers; or in other words: conquer evil with good. Only in this case will victory undoubtedly be on your side. Amen.  

 

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.