By Fr. George Dorbarakis
This Saint was from the city of Tyana in Cappadocia. Because he confessed his faith in Christ, he was arrested by the emperor Maximinus, during the reign of Diocletian. Not persuaded to sacrifice to idols, but boldly confessing Christ as God, he was beaten with rods so hard that his entrails were torn out and visible from the outside. After that, he was led to the temple of the idols. There, with a simple blow on the idols, he immediately turned them into dust. Then he was delivered to prison and after seven days he appeared before Maximinus’s tribunal. And again, because they tried to force him to sacrifice and he was not convinced, they pierced his ankles with large nails and tied him with chains to a wild horse, which ran with great force, and after dragging him twenty-four miles from the city of Tyana, he gave up his spirit.
The steadfastness and spiritual strength of the soul of the Holy Martyr Orestes is what is particularly emphasized in his Service by the ecclesiastical poet. The Martyr, according to him, has such inner strength that the considered all-powerful tyrant did not dare even to endure the brilliance of his words. “The tyrant could not stand the brilliance of your words... he was powerless.” The cause of this power of the Saint was certainly none other than the power given to him by the Holy Spirit, Christ Himself, on whose rock of love he had established his existence. The hymns on him are wonderful: “The torrents of sufferings that piled up could not shake the tower of your soul, blessed martyr Orestes. For you had been established on the rock of the Lord’s love, you who are worthy of admiration." “Strengthened by the power of the Paraclete.” “Jesus Christ made you resolute by divine grace.”
The Holy Hymnographer also sees the tragic end of the Martyr in a spiritual way. While he is dragged by the horse and thus delivers up his holy soul, being terribly tortured, he himself becomes a chariot because of the cause of his martyrdom – his love for Christ – and he runs in this race, carrying Christ Himself within his heart, as a result of which he reaches the finish of this spiritual chariot race, the Kingdom of God, rejoicing. “Having become the Chariot of the Word, you carried Him, O All-Blessed One. Thus, bound by irrational beasts in a wicked abduction, you were violently dragged away and reached the winning post of immortality rejoicing." It is the same truth that our Church emphasizes every time, when it refers to the martyrdoms of the saints: while they appear defeated and destitute, in reality they are the triumphant, those who have the final and absolute word.
A hymn of the Saint's Canon also gives the explanation of the paradoxical phenomenon: that is, how the "weak" saint ultimately overcomes the "strong." "Inflamed by divine desire for Christ, most-excellent martyr, it made you strong, so that you ignite the mania of the easy-to-burn material idols." Like fire, the Saint burned up the dry grass of idolatry. The specific image of the Holy Hymnographer should not go unnoticed. Because beyond the fact that it highlights the power of a martyr, a power in essence of Christ Himself, it points out the complete weakness of worldly power. Idolatry in this case is any dominant power in the world that does not take into account the true God. Therefore, it does not refer only to the era, but also to every era, including ours. Where there are powers that seem powerful and enormous, but act without love, that is, without the presence of God, any considered power of theirs is a shadow, a literal dry grass. This is what the word of God testifies to, namely that the world-ruler devil is a defeated ruler, one already “finished,” who in simply a matter of a short time Christ will cause to disappear with a simple breath of His, like a spider’s web.
How many empires were there that were considered powerful and “eternal”? Where is the Roman Empire? It was lost. Where also is the Byzantine Empire? It fell, because of its "sins". Who would have expected that just a few years ago the mighty Soviet Union would fall like a torn piece of paper? Therefore, who can consider the current powerful people of the earth, who demonstrate their power to the weak, as powerful? Who can take them seriously, especially when their criterion is injustice, in the sense that they only look at their own interests, indifferent to the sufferings of entire peoples? The point is that these weak peoples, like ours now, which are "trampled" by the hitherto powerful, have people with a little flame in their hearts. Saint Orestes - and not only he - with his soul aflame with the love of Christ, shamed and burned, as we said, the dry grass of the power of Maximinus and Diocletian. Where will we find some of his flame? The others are "dry grass." How about us?
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
