By Fr. George Dorbarakis
1. Saint Thallelaios lived during the reign of Numerian (around the end of the third century). He came from Lebanon; his father was called Beroukios and his mother Romylia, and he studied the medical art. He was arrested for his faith in Christ in Azarbos, the second province of Cilicia, while he was hiding in an olive grove. He was then led before the governor Theodore, who, since he was unable to persuade him to sacrifice to the idols, ordered that his ankles be pierced and that he be hung upside down with ropes. While the servants appeared to be carrying out the command, by some divine power they lost their minds and instead of the Saint pierced a piece of wood and hung it up. They themselves were then beaten, because they were thought to have mocked the governor. Afterwards the governor ordered the Saint to be thrown into the sea, from which however he emerged unharmed, clothed in a white garment. After these things he was cast into the arena to be devoured by wild beasts, but again he remained unharmed, whereupon they cut off his head with a sword in Edessa, the city of Aigai.
2. Saint Thallelaios showed, just as many other young martyrs before and after him, that wherever faith in Christ exists, the temptations of this world and the attraction exercised especially upon the young by the world of the senses are overcome. And this is because faith in the Lord illumines the mind and understanding of a person, rendering them perfect, so that the body obeys the mind enlightened like the sun, with the result that the person walks in balance upon ultimately the will of the Lord. And not only does a person, and especially a young person, then become spiritually healthy and balanced, but he also becomes an instrument of God in order to guide his fellow human beings as well, a kind of light dissolving the darkness created in every age by the various idols. The holy hymnographer Joseph repeatedly emphasizes this reality:
“You were young in body, but perfect in understanding, Martyr Thallelaios; therefore you shone like the sun with the rays of true knowledge of God, with the result that you clearly drove away the gloom of the vanity of idols” (Ode 1).
This spiritual health and balance of Saint Thallelaios, which also made him a true missionary of the Lord, was according to our Hymnographer the result of the grace of God, which however found his own will cooperating with it. It is the best-known teaching of our Church that in order for a person to relate to and be harmonized with God, first and foremost the grace of God is certainly required — He loves us exceedingly and never leaves us “alone” — yet this grace also requires the good disposition of the person, that is, his own “yes,” in order for it to operate within his existence. Thus the Saint, moved by the Lord, looked only toward Him, to such a degree that he did not deviate at all, even though he underwent countless torments.
“You were fortified by your piety and strengthened by the grace of the all-merciful God, Thallelaios; therefore you advanced courageously toward the contests of martyrdom and destroyed the strongholds of the enemy, receiving the victory” (Ode 1).
“Looking only toward the Lord Who granted you victory, you did not turn aside from the true confession, O athlete, but remained steadfast, causing astonishment even among the senseless” (Ode 3).
The Saint’s help from the grace of the Lord, especially during the hour of his martyric contests, was accomplished, according to Saint Joseph, also through the holy angels. It is well known especially from the ascetic tradition of the Church that the man of God is attacked, by God’s allowance of course, by multitudes of demons. The demons literally “become demonic” when they see a person carrying out the will of God, and indeed with sacrifice of his very life. Therefore they attempt in many ways, chiefly by stirring up their own “people,” to lead the saint into fear and denial of God. The Lord however is always with us. He never leaves us defenseless, and besides His own presence He also sends His holy angels for help — just as happened with Christ Himself, when during His temptation shortly before the Passion an angel strengthened Him. One remembers the young monk from the Gerontikon who, frightened by the multitude of demonic temptations, fled to a great Elder. And the Elder reassured him, showing him that yes, the demons are many, but they are very few compared to the innumerable multitude of angels helping him.
“You routed the ranks of demons, O wise one, having the holy angels as fellow-workers during the time of your contests” (Ode 6).
And the Holy Hymnographer insists: amid temptations Saint Thallelaios resembled the Holy Three Youths in the fiery furnace, which however was cooled by the divine dew, or also the Holy Prophet Daniel, who likewise faced the temptation of the lions and emerged unharmed like him.
“You stood in the midst of the flame of temptations, like the Three Youths, O glorious one, receiving precisely the divine dew from God and glorifying the God over all” (Ode 7).
“Like another young Daniel you were thrown among the lions, without being harmed at all by them, prize-winning Martyr Thallelaios, because of divine grace” (Ode 7).
It is therefore not accidental that the Holy Hymnographer points out with God-given illumination that “together with the faithful at the memory of the Saint dance choirs of venerable athletes, hosts of angels and apostles and prophets,” while he entreats the Saint “not to cease interceding for all of us” (Ode 8).
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
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