By Fr. George Dorbarakis
These glorious martyrs, in the sixth year of the persecution of Diocletian, were led to martyrdom from various cities and from various professions and ranks, and were united in the one faith of Christ. The manner of their arrest was as follows: As they were about to pass through the gates of the city of Caesarea, the guards demanded to know who they were and from where they came. They called themselves Christians and said that their homeland was the heavenly Jerusalem. For this reason they were arrested and led before the governor Firmilian; and after many tortures he beheaded Elijah and those with him, just as he also beheaded Pamphilos and the rest. Porphyrios, because he sought the body of his master Pamphilos, was also arrested and delivered to the fire. Likewise Julian, because he embraced the bodies of the Saints, was cast into the flames. And Theodoulos was crucified upon a piece of wood and thus bore witness in martyrdom.
Like another twelve apostles, our Church today presents the Holy Twelve Martyrs: the priest Pamphilos, Valens, Seleucus, Daniel, Theodoulos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Elijah, Porphyrios, Paul, Julian, and Samuel — because of their mindset, which moved with the same apostolic zeal regarding the firmness of their faith and their fearlessness before torments.
“As having become equal in number to the apostles, O prize-winners, you took up a zeal of like mind with them, not frightened by the impious cruelty of the tyrants; but having proclaimed the Savior bravely and steadfastly, you endured the twisting of your limbs” (Vespers sticheron).
Saint Theophanes the Hymnographer also interprets this identity of mind and their grace-filled perseverance in martyrdom, although most of them came from different regions and had no connection with one another before their martyrdom:
“The twelve-numbered phalanx was formed by the power of the All-Holy Spirit” (Ode 1).
That is, the Holy Spirit was the One who united them, just as He generally unites people in an essential way, even if they may be strangers to one another. This is a truth already noted from the beginning of Christianity, not only by Christians themselves but also by pagans: Christians recognize one another, they said, even before they have met. It is the one faith, the one Lord, the one baptism that activates within them the presence of the Holy Spirit and makes their hearts one.
The fact of the unity of the Twelve Martyrs, even without acquaintance before their martyrdom, leads the Holy Hymnographer to see them also as a miniature of the Church itself. The Church is the Body of Christ that includes all faithful people throughout the world, regardless of race, language, sex, education, or social class. The unifying element is, as we said, the one faith, the one baptism, the one Lord. Therefore their common martyrdom, despite their differences, is a proclamation of what the Church is: the embrace of the Lord for all people. In the fourth ode this is emphasized:
“Having come from various ways of life, you were deemed worthy to preserve in brief the whole image of the Church, crying out together: Glory to Your power, O Lord.”
Yet we must expand what Saint Theophanes previously stated — that the unity of the Twelve Martyrs was the result of the presence of the Holy Spirit. It is a clarification the Holy Hymnographer makes more than once. The Holy Spirit formed all twelve into one phalanx because He found their hearts prepared for this. He found them, according to the very name of Saint Pamphilos, ready in love and friendship toward Christ. Only one who has transferred his existence in love to Him can also perceive within himself the unifying presence of the Spirit of God.
“You loved the divine wills of Christ and thus were shown to be a Christ-loving healer of the faithful, great-souled Pamphilos,” says the Kontakion of the feast.
And elsewhere, in the verses of the synaxarion:
“Loving You above all things, O Word, Pamphilos considered even the cutting off of his head to be beloved.”
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
