Fr. George Dorbarakis
Saint Mark, living during the reign of Constantine the Great, was stirred by great zeal and destroyed many pagan altars and temples. But when Julian the Apostate ascended the throne, he restored paganism and began to persecute Saint Mark as well as all those who had taken part in the destruction of the pagan temples. Then the Saint hid for a while, but when he learned that others were being dragged away because of him, he revealed himself and delivered himself to the deniers of the faith.
They then stripped him naked, wounded his entire body, and threw him into filthy sewers. After this, they brought him out and handed him over to small children to wound him with needles. Then they soaked his body with brine and finally smeared him with honey, in the height of summer, and hung him upside down in the sun, so that he might burn and become food for bees and wasps. All these torments the wondrous Mark endured with courage and patience, so that his torturers might not rebuild again the destroyed altars. Indeed, the steadfastness of his faith prevailed. Seeing him endure bravely and with youthful vigor, the pagans believed in Christ.
Something similar also happened in Phoenicia, again during the time of Julian. For they seized Cyril the deacon, who had also destroyed certain pagan idols, and because he boldly confessed his faith, they opened his belly, took out his entrails, and displayed them as a spectacle to those gathered. And it is said that something befell them which shows divine justice: their teeth were knocked out, and their tongues and eyes were destroyed. By the same death several virgin women also ended their lives in Ashkalon and Gaza, as well as certain clergy, whose memory is celebrated together on this day.
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Two are the points on which the Holy Hymnographer of the Church, George, especially insists in his hymnography of the Holy Bishop Mark: first, his holiness as a priest before his martyrdom, and second, his very martyrdom, which reveals the power it contains, since it is accomplished for the sake of love toward the Lord Jesus Christ.
Indeed, George presents the position of Saint Mark in the Church as a “radiant lamp that illumines her fullness” (Ode 1), since “the Saint was nurtured and grew up in the faith of Christ until he reached the height of martyrdom” (Ode 1). The Saint, notes the Hymnographer, throughout all the years of his life was a preacher and guide of people toward Christ, distinguished especially for his reverence and purity of soul in the celebration of the Divine Liturgy — something that enabled him to strengthen and guide his fellow athletes toward the greatest love for Christ: to give even their lives for His sake (Ode 1).
Moreover, the preaching gift of Saint Mark was so great, says the holy poet, that his words — clearly grounded in his holy life — functioned on the one hand as a flame that dried up all the muddy rivers of the delusion of the pagans, and on the other as a spring from which flowed the streams of the knowledge of God for people (Ode 3). And George, as the mouth of the Church, goes on to explain even what might be considered the violence of his action in destroying certain pagan temples. The cause of this action, he notes, was the philanthropy of the Saint. For the far-seeing Saint perceived that the idols served by demons prevent people from finding rest and peace; they create a continual disturbance and upheaval in their mind and life.
Thus he demolishes the houses of demons in order to build in their place, chiefly through his word, the house of the true God, that is, to make people themselves “temples of the living God,” members of Christ. And this constitutes the greatest benefaction a person can offer to the world: to establish them upon the almighty God, Christ. In the words of the Hymnographer: “You shook the temples of idols, O blessed one, and you established the people who were shaken and trembling upon Christ” (Ode 6).
And then the Hymnographer focuses on the martyrdom itself, which constitutes the greatest confirmation of the Saint’s faith and love for Christ. And what does he note? That, apart from the sacrifice of the Saint — who at the hour of martyrdom “offered himself as a sacred sacrifice to the Lord” (Ode 7) — this very martyrdom, because it was carried out not with anger, wrath, or a sense of revenge against his enemies, but with what the Lord Himself showed upon the Cross, that is, with love and long-suffering even toward his persecutors, therefore it functioned as a tremendous power that humbled the arrogance of the instruments of the Evil One and exalted as victor the one considered defeated (Ode 5).
And this is an exceptional observation of the Holy Hymnographer, one that we Christians often overlook, turning instead to worldly methods in our daily relationships: at the very moment when we endure the hostility of any fellow human being and “respond” to his attack with humility and love, at that very moment we “overthrow” him, to use a beautiful scriptural expression; that is, at that moment we are victorious, because through us the omnipotence of the Cross is set in motion.
“In the anger of your enemies you set against them, as an imitator of Christ, your long-suffering, O righteous one. And by this long-suffering you humbled their arrogance and were shown to be victorious” (Ode 5).
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
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