By Fr. George Dorbarakis
1. Saint Peter was from the city of Lampsacus. When he was led before the ruler of the city of the Abydenians, Dacnus, and was ordered by him to sacrifice to Aphrodite, not only indeed was he not persuaded, but he confessed Christ as God, whereupon they crushed his whole body with various instruments of torture, and thus he delivered up his spirit. Paul and Andrew, who were from Mesopotamia, were soldiers under the ruler Dacnus, and they captured Athens. Dionysios and Christina among others were also arrested and thrown into prison. Christina however, who was beautiful and a virgin maiden, being moreover of marriageable age, was pressured by Paul and Andrew to have relations with them, though of course they accomplished nothing. And not only did they fail to persuade her, even by force, but on the contrary they themselves repented of their way of life because of Christina’s exhortations, and thus they believed in Christ. Therefore they, together with Dionysios, were stoned to death, while Saint Christina, who threw herself upon them, had her head cut off.
2. It sounds paradoxical and incomprehensible! A virgin maiden, Christina, exceedingly beautiful and cast into prison, not only resisting the amorous intentions of her rulers — if she had yielded, she would have gained her freedom or would have greatly improved her life — but even succeeding in persuading them to become followers of the Lord, that is, for them to join her faith, to such a degree that in the end they also gave their very lives in a martyric manner! How did this unbelievable thing happen? Saint Joseph the Hymnographer attempts an answer:
“Martyr Christina, those who like madmen desired your body accepted eros for God through your grace-filled and sweetness-bearing word, therefore afterward they also contested with great strength” (Ode 5).
So then, here is the answer to the “mystery”: Christina, full of the grace and power of Christ, filled with eros for the Lord, expressed through her word the grace-filled state in which she lived, with the result that this grace also spoke to the heart of the soldiers, so that their earthly erotic disposition was transformed into a supernatural erotic disposition toward God!
What lies here as a presupposition? Not only Christina’s active faith in Christ, which made her exist in the world as another Christ, but obviously also the good disposition that must have existed in the depth of the hearts of the two soldiers. That is to say, although the soldiers appeared like maniacs because of erotic passion, there must nevertheless have been good elements in their soul, such that when they came face to face with the Lord through Christina, these elements prevailed and overcame even the harshest passion of their lust! Which means: wherever there is a genuine Christian, there also operates a missionary element which, even unknowingly, touches every well-disposed person. “He that is of the truth hears My voice,” the Lord said authoritatively, that is, when one loves the truth, he also hears the voice of Christ, even if it appears that his passions have the first word in his life. Did we not also see this in the Apostle Matthew, who from a tax collector became a saint and evangelist? Did we not also see it in the Apostle Paul, who at the very hour when he was persecuting Christians received the calling from the Lord? And these are not the only references.
And among many others there are also two additional points which Saint Joseph the Hymnographer notes, in order to explain the inexplicable both of the conversion of the pagans and of the joyful perseverance of the faithful followers of the Lord.
First: the human weakness of the martyrs captured for Christ was transformed into strength, and indeed great strength, solely from the fact of their turning in faith toward the Lord. Which means that when the believer, in whatever difficult situation he may be, disengages himself from the problem and the difficulty by shifting his attention to Christ, there he also sees the power of Him Who sustains and carries him away. “Peter,” notes Joseph, “being strengthened by your turning toward God, you were shown forth as victorious, while being crushed and mercilessly beaten by the instruments of torture” (Ode 3).
And second: “Because, blessed Peter, you established the feet of your soul upon the rock of faith, therefore you were not turned aside by the hostility of the godless” (Ode 3).
The Hymnographer, a great Saint of the Church, presents one of the best known “mysteries” of the spiritual life according to Christ: the solution to every problem, every trial and temptation, comes from the Lord as soon as we turn our attention toward Him and persist in Him. “Overcome evil with good,” the Apostle Paul says, interpreting the Psalmic words: “Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord, for He shall pluck my feet out of the snare,” and “I foresaw the Lord always before me, because He is at my right hand, that I should not be shaken.”
Saint Porphyrios therefore did not say by chance that it was there, in the services of the Church, that he learned these mysteries of the spiritual life. For in reality, through the lives of the holy martyrs, they express the very gospel of the Lord Himself.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
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