By Fr. George Dorbarakis
Our Church, every time a Saint celebrates their feast, and especially a great one, like the Great Martyr Artemios, who is celebrated today, it is as if it sets before us a rich table - with the Saint himself as the host - with all kinds of goods, which means that it experiences a feast, to which it invites every member of the Church to enjoy it abundantly. And these goods, of course, are accessible, not material, but spiritual, such that they cause the participant to glorify God and the Saint himself. "Your radiant festival, O martyr, has joyfully gathered everyone today into a splendid celebration, recounting your feats, struggles, and brave endurance; having been inspired by these, we bless you with faith and longing.” This means that a believer, who has the Kingdom of God as the priority of his life, according to the word of the Lord, can and does rejoice, even if he is in the midst of sorrows and trials of this present life. And no one can characterize the Christian as “daydreaming,” unrealistic, “outside of place and time,” because the Christian begins with the truest reality, with the deepest realism: that “he produces the shape of this world,” that everything is transient and perishable, except of course God and those related to Him.
One of the most beautiful goods, one of the most beautiful spiritual foods that the feast of the Saint offers us today, is his heart, unshakable as a solid tower. The hymnographer, wanting to vividly paint for us the steadfast faith of the Great Martyr, his heroic mind, his clear orientation towards the love of God alone, such that no torture could change it, presents this image: “The fierce onslaught of sufferings did not shake the tower of your heart, O all-wise one.” And why is that? Because the Saint had solidified his heart on the absolutely solid noetic rock, which is Christ. “And indeed, it was established noetically upon the immovable rock." The hymnographer’s reference to his rock-solid mind is also influenced by the type of his martyrdom: his being crushed between two stones. Just as he remained unwavering, as he was squeezed by the huge stones, so he fixed the steps of his soul on the rock of life, Jesus Christ. “Having fixed his steps on the rock of life for the soul, and being tightly squeezed by stones and surrounded by pains, you remained a true athlete, unshaken." Our steadfast and unwavering faith and love for Christ lead us to this: to be "rock-solid" in spirit, steadfast in this life, with a pace of the soul such that even if everything around us and beside us "falls," we continue our journey with awareness and consciousness. In a world that is indeed "double-minded," and therefore disordered in all things, we understand that even a somewhat consistent Christian constitutes the compass and the light of the world. As the Lord Himself says: "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden."
Leaving aside serious theological remarks from the Service of the Saint - such as, for example, the hymn from the stichera of Vespers: "Initiated by the inspiration of the Spirit, you have attained divine knowledge, knowing the Creator of all, Artemios," meaning that the Saint came to know the Creator Lord of all, having been led to this divine knowledge by the illumination of the Holy Spirit, which means that no one truly knows Christ, except through the illumination of God Himself, we cannot fail to mention, even if only briefly, the numerous miracles that were performed from the time of the Saint's martyrdom and afterwards. It is true: Saint Artemios is one of the most miraculous saints (and especially for andrological, we would say, ailments), therefore whoever invokes him with faith in God sees his miraculous energy on him, both in his soul and in his body. As the hymnographer notes: “Your much-suffering body has been shown to be a medical clinic, driving away from those who faithfully resort to you, every disease, every wound and affliction, every harm of demons.” We record a few of his miraculous interventions below:
(1) A man who had a severe problem with his testicles came to the Saint crying and asking for his health. So he fell on a mat in the middle of his temple, and after a while he fell asleep, and the Saint said to him: “Show me your disease.” So he pointed it out to the Saint, whereupon the Saint, after touching the painful part of the sick man and squeezing him in that spot with force, made him scream from the pain and wake up. So when he woke up, he found himself healthy and began to glorify and bless God.
(2) Another man again, having a large hydrocele, came to the Saint. And in this case the Saint “tore” the place of his disease with a sword, while he was sleeping, resulting in a tremendous stench coming from the liquid that came out. The sick man woke up immediately and found himself healthy, but his tunics and the ground filled with stench, rot and dampness.
“Through his intercessions, Christ our God, have mercy and save us.”
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
