By Fr. George Dorbarakis
These Saints contended during the reign of Emperor Decius on the island of Crete. They came from different parts of the island and not from a single city. Five were from the Metropolis of Gortyna: Theodoulos, Saturninos, Euporos, Gelasios, and Eunikianos. From Knossos was Zotikos. From the harbor of Panormos was Agathopous. From Kydonia was Basilides, and from Herakleion were Evarestοs and Pompios. These were handed over by the unbelievers to the governor of the island, who allowed the executioner to lead them around to the altars of the idols and, if they refused to sacrifice, to torture them with every kind of torment. For thirty days, therefore, they were dragged about by disorderly mockers, who ridiculed them and dragged them along the ground through dung heaps. And afterward, when the judge saw that their resolve remained unmoved and firm despite the beatings and stonings, he dislocated the limbs of their bodies, subjected them to other dreadful tortures, and finally beheaded them.
The beloved practice of Joseph the Hymnographer — to link the feasts of the saints with the days before Christmas — continues here as well. What we observed also with Saint Anastasia the Pharmakolytria, namely that she is presented by the Hymnographer as a light illuminating the Nativity of the Lord, we see likewise here with the Holy Ten Martyrs of Crete: “The memory of the Martyrs has arrived,” he emphasizes, “proclaiming the day of the Nativity of the Savior; and through their contest the feast of the Master is foreshadowed for us.”
In what way do the Saints refer us to Christmas? By the offering of their gifts to Him who was born of the Virgin: the sacrifice of their very selves. “The Magi offered You gifts, but the Martyrs offered their blood to Him who was born upon the earth of a Virgin, in the city of David.” According to Saint Joseph, the martyrdom of the Ten Martyrs functions as a type of the Lord’s Nativity: it is the new star that proclaims to the faithful Him whom the Virgin conceived. “Formerly a star appeared to the Magi, leading them to Bethlehem, the city of Judah; but these proclaim to us through their sufferings Him whom the Virgin conceived without seed.”
The origin of the Ten Martyrs from Crete is not left unused by the Holy Hymnographer. He takes the occasion to recall the great Apostle Paul and his disciples, who passed through Crete and founded the local Church. In these ten martyrs Joseph sees an extension of the Apostle to the Gentiles, branches belonging to his planting. “You were shown to be branches of Titus and Carpos, O Martyrs, as those who blossomed forth from the planting of Paul, offering to Christ from your lips the fruits of confession.” The observation of the Holy Hymnographer is especially significant: one is considered a genuine continuer of the apostolic tradition when, in practice — and indeed through the sacrifice of one’s life — one manifests the faith that the Apostles handed down. This is a truth we must always keep in mind, given that we younger people often boast of our fathers without making any effort to align our lives with theirs.
The apostolic faith in Christ of the Holy Martyrs is also presented by the hymns of their Service through a splendid image: their faith is likened to a ship lying in a calm harbor, and therefore protected from the savage waves of the sea. Faith in Christ was what gave the Martyrs the strength to overcome all the blows of the impious, which came against them like waves. “When the tyranny of the enemy surged like the sea against the confession of Christ, the athletes appeared all together as sheltered harbors, holding their faith as a ship.” The entire history of the Church and of humanity continually confirms that indeed the greatest power in the world — the power that bent ironclad empires and prevailed over emperors and kings considered all-powerful — is faith in Christ, when of course it is not exhausted in words (for that would be blasphemy), but is revealed as life. And rightly so: it is faith that constitutes the channel through which the very presence of God enters the world.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
