By Fr. George Dorbarakis
1. Saint Isidore lived during the reign of Emperor Decius and came from the city of Alexandria. He was a soldier, belonging to the battalion of combat-ready troops. When at one point he arrived on the island of Chios with military ships, whose admiral was Numerius, he was accused by the centurion Julius of honoring the Lord Jesus Christ and not worshipping their own gods. Saint Isidore then confessed his faith in Christ with boldness, and so Numerius, seeing that he was not going to change his mind, ordered that his head be cut off, and thus he received the crown of martyrdom.
2. Saint Isidore was a soldier in the Roman Empire, but above all he was a soldier of Christ, having Christ Himself as his absolute King. This means that the ruling principle in his life was precisely: “one must obey God rather than men.” In other words, he obeyed earthly laws whenever those laws did not come into conflict with the law of God. And the proof is this: as soon as he was faced with a choice between the command of the ruler and the law of God, he chose obedience to the faith and offered his life for it, following in the footsteps of his Teacher. Saint Theophanes the Hymnographer repeatedly notes this absolute priority of Isidore: “Following the footsteps of the sufferings of the Master, you imitated His voluntary death, willingly enduring suffering for His sake” (Ode 4). “Possessing your whole longing toward God, who is truly the undefiled Good, O all-blessed athlete, you dimmed the desire for earthly things” (Ode 6).
Saint Isidore is thus presented, like all the saints, as a truly whole and integrated person, without falling into the terrible condition of double-mindedness, in which disorder and turmoil are the permanent characteristics. Unfortunately, double-mindedness, as a deficient orientation toward the one absolute constant, which is God, shakes the inner world of man, causing him to be driven now here and now there, as a plaything of various forces, whether human or demonic, in any case alien to his true nature. In such a condition, a person ceases to function as a genuine human being. The holy man, like Isidore, is a genuine and true human being because he remains steadfastly attached to his Creator God — “I have cleaved to You, Master” (Ode 6) — and this brings the overcoming of the soul-destroying condition of fear. That is to say, the saint fears no one except God Himself, yet God does not want man to live in terror, because He reveals Himself as man’s beloved Father. Saint Theophanes notes this point: “You, O God-minded one, cried aloud: Christ I fear, worship, adore, and praise” (Ode 8). It is therefore understandable that through his wholehearted turning toward Christ, the Saint experienced Him within his very being, especially at the hour of his martyrdom, in a way that manifested him altogether gloriously: like a shining sun. “Your gentle face appeared all-radiant like the sun through the joy of martyrdom” (Ode 8).
From this perspective, it is not only the grace of God that strengthens the martyr so that he remains always in God, but also the state of his own heart. Our ecclesiastical poet is absolutely clear on this point: Saint Isidore was able to remain steadfast until the end in the confession of his faith because his heart was fearless, with its impulse directed toward Christ. The same thing happens with an athlete whose heart is driven by the impulse toward victory — no one ever wins contests with the mindset of defeat — and in the same way it is in spiritual struggles. One must believe in victory, especially when one knows that Almighty God Himself gives strength in order to attain victory. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” “Possessing the undaunted impulse of your soul, O glorious one, you steadfastly preserved the confession with all reverence” (Ode 3).
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
