By Fr. George Dorbarakis
Saint Boukolos from a young age sanctified himself and became a vessel of the Holy Spirit. He was found worthy and fit by the all-praised and Christ-beloved divine John the Theologian, who ordained him bishop and good shepherd of the Church of Smyrna. Boukolos, illumined by the Holy Spirit, led those who were in the darkness of error into the light of the faith of Christ, and through holy baptism made them sons of the day, saving them from countless savage beasts. Thus, before departing this life, he ordained and appointed as shepherd and Teacher of the rational sheep in the same city, Smyrna, the blessed Polycarp, and then he fell asleep in the Lord. And when his honorable body was laid beneath the earth, God caused a plant to spring up that provides healings to this day.
Saint Boukolos is not very well known to most of our Christians, although he belongs to the Apostolic Fathers, who shone by their life and preaching. Perhaps this is because he stood between two most eminent men, great stars of our Church, who overshadowed him with their brilliance: Saint John the Theologian and Saint Polycarp of Smyrna. And on the other hand, he is also commemorated together with another star, a universal father and teacher, equal to the apostles and confessor, great in his very title — Saint Photios, Patriarch of Constantinople. Yet despite all the radiance of these great and eminent figures, Saint Boukolos, according to our Church, never ceases “to flash forth with the light of his God-working virtues, being set as a light on the lampstand of the divine Church and making it radiant with his sacred teachings” (“Shining with the light of God-working virtues, most holy one, you were mystically set as a light on the lampstand of the divine Church, making it radiant, Father, by your sacred teachings” - Vespers sticheron). He is the man who, as Saint Joseph the Hymnographer notes elsewhere in his Canon, “shone as light, as radiance, as a great sun, as lightning in the Church of Christ, and illumined the minds of the faithful” (“As light, as radiance, as a great sun, as lightning you shone forth in the Church of Christ and illumined the minds of the faithful” - Ode 9).
What was it that made him also a second light after the First, Christ, and a “sacred treasure” of Him? The Holy Hymnographer answers: “the beauty of his soul and the purity of his mind” (Ode 4), the result of his spiritual ascetic labors aimed at overcoming sinful passions: “having mastered the passions through ascetic discipline of the body, O glorious one” (Ode 7). For this reason all the virtues of God dwelt in him and made him a dwelling place of God. “The glorious Boukolos was shown to be a dwelling of the Holy Trinity, for he possessed the humility that exalts, purity of mind, unfeigned love, sincere faith and hope” (Ode 6).
But we also said that his holiness, in view of his responsible position as bishop, took on a missionary form. Saint Boukolos preached the word of God unceasingly, “proclaiming in a pious manner the one essence of the Trinity, so as to uproot the polytheistic error” (“Proclaiming piously the one essence of the Trinity, you uprooted from the earth the polytheistic error, as a venerable hierarch”- Ode 3), always, of course, putting forward the constant preaching of his teacher and spiritual father, Saint John the Theologian — namely, the reality of the incarnation of the Son and Word of God. “Your jaws were made beautiful, all-blessed one, because they proclaimed the incarnation of Him who shone upon us through ineffable compassion” (Ode 7). “You theologized the incarnate Word of God and saved many peoples from the irrationality of error, for you became a divine disciple of him who shone forth in theology, O herald Boukolos” (Ode 8).
Saint Joseph does not pass over in silence the fact that at the tomb of the Saint a plant sprang up which provided healings to those who came to it. He considers this wondrous event to be a testimony from God of the Saint’s vindication, both for his activity as shepherd and for his state in the heavens. “Having blossomed like a palm tree in the courts of God, you fell asleep with the sleep befitting the righteous; and now you bring forth a plant at your divine tomb, a marvel to those who behold it, O God-proclaiming Boukolos” (Ode 8).
Saint Boukolos is a radiant Apostolic Father who points to another radiant figure — both in holiness and in name — much later than himself and commemorated together with him: Saint Photios, the “like-minded with the apostles,” the ecumenical father and great among teachers.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
