By Fr. George Dorbarakis
1. These Saints lived in Rome during the reign of the emperor Diocletian. Saint Kallistratos was arrested as a Christian by the military commander Persentinus, and because he confessed that Christ is the true God, he was severely beaten. Then they placed him upon a potsherd and dragged him over it. Afterwards, they put him into a sack and threw him into the sea. But the sack tore open, and he came out unharmed. Forty-nine soldiers witnessed this miracle and they too believed in Christ. Persentinus then tortured them and had them imprisoned together with Kallistratos, who found the opportunity to teach them about the judgment of God, the Resurrection, and the soul. Afterwards, when they had all been brought out of prison, Kallistratos prayed and cast down the idols. When other soldiers also saw this, one hundred and eighty-four in number (or, according to others, one hundred and thirty-five), they too believed, whereupon the tyrants beheaded them all.
2. The fact that Saint Kallistratos was an ordinary soldier of the Roman Empire gives his hymnographer, Saint Joseph, the occasion to view him in a twofold military dimension: on the one hand, from a spiritual perspective, the soldier became a general; on the other hand, even after his death he continued in his military calling.
What does the Holy Hymnographer mean? By his steadfastness in the Christian faith, Kallistratos opposed the persecuting devil and his instruments as a general, with the result that he even won over the devil’s captives and led them to divine life. “Like an excellent general, O Martyr, you arrayed yourself against the persecutor and won over to divine life those who had long been his captives” (Ode 4).
On the other hand, through his martyrdom, and especially through the cutting off of his head, the Saint was enrolled in the army of the victorious Martyrs who had gone before him. “Kallistratos, having had his neck severed by the sword, was joined to the army of the victorious Martyrs” (verses of the Synaxarion). To continue the poet’s thought: as a soldier of Christ, Kallistratos is now adorned with the red cloak of the Martyrs, dyed with the blood of his martyrdom. “Adorned with a cloak dyed with sacred blood, O Martyr, truly dyed with your own blood, you stand before the King of the ages, O blessed one, crowned” (Ode 3). Thus Saint Kallistratos and the Martyrs with him provide yet another confirmation of the well-known hymn concerning the Martyrs, which sees the Church as having red garments precisely because of the blood of her Holy Martyrs.
Saint Joseph the Hymnographer makes an important theological observation, as he sees the “Most Great” Martyr of Christ having found the path that leads to the blessedness of the Kingdom of God. He says that he found and followed this path not through some inspiration of his own or through some eccentricity, but through the illumination he received from God. His observation is important because no one becomes a Christian by himself; still less can anyone bear witness to Christ unless he is called by Christ Himself and especially strengthened by His grace. As the Lord Himself says: “No one can come to Me unless My Father draws him.” And according to the word of the Apostle Paul: “It was granted to us not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.” Christian faith, therefore, and martyrdom for Christ constitute a gift of God (it was given to us), when, of course, the necessary condition is present: the good disposition and will of the human person. “O Martyr and athlete Kallistratos, having had your mind illumined by the light of piety, you walked unwaveringly along the path that leads to the blessedness of the world to come” (Sticheron at Vespers).
The Holy Hymnographer cannot leave unmentioned the fact that Kallistratos also became an aleiptēs (trainer), that is, a spiritual guide and strengthener of the other Martyrs, both through his life and through his teaching. He points out that he first became rich in the word of life of Christ, which means that he embraced it and made it his way of life, and then guided toward this life those who, because of ignorance, were in a state of spiritual death. And this is understandable: no one can illumine others unless he himself has first been illumined. No one can transmit a fire that he does not possess. As the great Saint Gregory the Theologian also clearly said: “First we must be illumined, and then illumine others.” According to the words of the poet himself: “O God-minded Martyr Kallistratos, having become rich in the word of life, you guided toward life those who previously, through ignorance, existed in a state of death” (Sticheron at Vespers). And elsewhere: “With the flood of your words you watered hearts and guided them toward the ever-living water” (Ode 4). The reason for the truth expressed above is the fact that Kallistratos loved Christ with all his heart. Wherever there is wholehearted love for Christ, there the person himself is filled with His presence, and he also guides others along the right path. “Wholeheartedly you longed for Christ our God, O Martyr” (Ode 5).
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
