By Fr. George Dorbarakis
When Emperor Maximian returned victorious from the war against the Ethiopians, he wished to offer sacrifices to the idols as a celebration of his victory. Letters were therefore sent everywhere urging everyone to come to Nicomedia in order to worship his gods. At that time Saint Anthimos, who was Bishop of Nicomedia, gathered the people of Christ in the church (for it was the feast of the Nativity of Christ), and he celebrated together with them and taught them the true faith. As soon as Maximian learned of this, he ordered that brushwood be piled around the church and set on fire, so that the Christians inside would be burned alive.
When the Bishop learned of this, he hastened to baptize the catechumens; then he celebrated the Divine Liturgy and communed all the Christians with the divine and immaculate Mysteries. Thus, from the burning brushwood, all were consumed and brought to their end. Saint Anthimos, however, was preserved by the grace of God, so that after benefiting others as well and leading them to Christ through Holy Baptism, he might, after many sufferings, depart to Him and enjoy the Kingdom of Heaven.
Saint Joseph the Hymnographer draws from the synaxarion of the Holy Twenty Thousand Martyrs, chiefly the means of their martyrdom — fire —, in order both to manifest their holiness and to edify the faithful. The fire through which they were led to the Kingdom of God he first presents — almost as if entering into the thoughts of the saints — as their sister, before whom the Saints felt no fear. Fire too is a creature of God, and therefore obedient to the commands of its Creator, functioning within His plan for the salvation of humankind. “We do not fear the fire, our fellow servant,” the brave martyrs cried out. This perspective reveals the Saints’ absolute conviction in the Providence of God — that nothing happens unless the Governor of all Himself allows it.
The Hymnographer also explains their overcoming of fear of fire in another way. The Saints did not fear it because another fire was at work in their hearts, stronger and more fervent than the sensible fire — and this was the love of Christ. “Most beautifully enflamed by the love of Christ, O all-praised ones, when the fire was kindled, you were in no way afraid.” This is one of the most important truths: where the love of Christ burns within the human heart, all the hardships of life, all so-called trials, are scarcely even perceived. The same happened with the Holy Three Children in Babylon, who were likewise cast into the blazing furnace of fire, yet their faith and love for God made them superior to it: “As the three divine children in Babylon, so you too were shown to be superior to the fire, being wholly illumined by the divine light.” The Apostle Paul also notes this in his Epistle to the Romans: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or danger, or the sword? For I am convinced that nothing shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.”
Saint Joseph, however, as a great poet and a most perceptive man, also makes constructive use of the number of the Martyrs. Their multitude brings to his mind the multitude of his own sins — and, of course, the sins of every believer. And what does he say? Just as you are so many, implore the Lord to blot out the multitude of my sins and grant me words with which to hymn your feast: “O countless multitude of venerable martyrs, by your intercession blot out the multitudes of my many transgressions, and grant me utterance to praise your festival.” This observation by the Holy Hymnographer is itself a manifestation of the height of his own holiness. Only a consistent and conscious believer can truly see himself as having a multitude of sins. In other words, the more rightly one stands before God, the more one is illumined to see the depth of oneself — and this, unfortunately, is not the most pleasant sight: there lie the causes of sins, and thus the believer is moved to true repentance.
Furthermore, Saint Joseph — the compunctionate and theological poet — also draws from the martyrdom of the Saints the place of their martyrdom: the temple of the Lord. The Saints were martyred by fire inside a church. He makes a threefold reference to the notion of the temple: the saints, through holy baptism, became temples of God as members of Christ; they received their martyric end within the earthly temple; and thus they were led to the heavenly Temple, the Kingdom of God — their “face to face” relationship with the Lord Himself. “Being temples of God, O saints, through baptism, you together received a holy end in the divine house, and were borne up to the heavenly Temple.”
May it be that we too, as temples of God through our baptism, possess this awareness: that our natural place in this life is the house of God, the temple, and that in this way we journey toward our incorporation into the heavenly Temple, the Church of the firstborn brethren.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.