By Fr. George Dorbarakis
Wonder, amazement, awe, doxology, fullness of divine eros! These are the first impressions one receives upon coming into contact with the hymns of our Church for the Great Martyr, Myrrhgushing and Wonderworking Saint Demetrios. The spiritual wealth of the Saint is so great that the hymnographer Theophanes, with his Canon, was not sufficient to hymn the whole life of Demetrios; Saint Philotheos, Patriarch of Constantinople, was also called upon, and with a second Canon he focuses our attention primarily on the saint’s myrrhgushing. “The second canon has as its subject both encomia and supplication concerning his holy myrrh,” according to the explanatory note accompanying this Canon. Thus, faced with the wondrous person of Saint Demetrios, our Church, through its hymnographers, feels the inadequacy of precisely praising his struggles and the honors the Saint enjoys in heaven. “The mind and human speech are not sufficient, O Martyr, to recount the supernatural honors and glories that you have received.”
And rightly so. How can one properly and precisely praise him who now reigns together with the Lord of all? Clothed in purple because of the blood he shed in martyrdom, and holding the Cross in his hands instead of a scepter, he truly reigns together with Christ. “Adorned with purple through your own blood, O glorious one, and holding the Cross instead of a scepter, you now reign together with Christ.” What encomium could be higher or greater than this? Consequently, the hymns emphasize that the feast of Saint Demetrios is not local in character, but universal. And this universality does not refer only to this world, that is, to the faithful throughout the world, but also to the angels themselves. “Today the universal festival of the prize-bearing martyr summons us together.” “Today, in heaven and on earth, the memory of Demetrios the Martyr has shone forth as a cause of rejoicing; he is crowned with praises by the Angels and receives hymns from men.”
The point at which the lyricism reaches its highest point is in the Canon of Saint Philotheos, who, as we have said, emphasizes the Saint’s myrrhgushing. The images he employs astonish us, revealing the greatness of Philotheos himself, who was otherwise a watchful and ascetic Father, as a remarkable poet. How does he first explain the Great Martyr’s myrrhgushing? “Christ, O blessed one, having gathered you as a ripe grape from the divine vine, presses you in the winepress of martyrdom; and the must that flowed forth became a divine spring of myrrh.” Elsewhere, he uses another image: “Demetrios, great among the martyrs, having mingled the sweat of his struggles with his blood, prepared the divine myrrh for us, having thoroughly cooked the remedy with the fire of the Spirit, for the new purification of souls.”
Saint Philotheos is not the only one who glorifies the Lord for the gift of the Saint’s myrrh, which heals the souls and bodies of the faithful. There is also another hymnographer, Germanos, who likewise draws a parallel of remarkable poetic conception in order to explain the grace of Demetrios’ myrrhgushing and, in this way, the working of his miracles: “Having been pierced with a spear in your undefiled side, O most revered Demetrios, and imitating Him who was stretched out upon the wood for the salvation of the whole world, you received the working of miracles, freely granting healings to people.”
What, then, is the cause of the astonishing person of Saint Demetrios and the wondrous gifts the Lord bestowed upon him? Nothing other than his obedience to the will of God. Throughout his life and during his martyrdom, Saint Demetrios’ priority was to please the Lord, thereby showing that above all else he was governed by love for Him, even at the cost of his own life. “Seeking to please the King of the ages, you turned away from every design of the lawless king, O glorious one, and did not sacrifice to graven images. Therefore, having struggled most steadfastly, you offered yourself as a sacrifice to the Word who was sacrificed.” And as we have said, what moved Saint Demetrios always to choose the will of God was his love for the Lord, fierce as fire: “His mind was set ablaze with divine longing.” “Having received the fire of divine longing in his heart.”
Indeed, this is the most fundamental truth concerning all our saints: their wondrous lives, such as that of the Great Martyr Demetrios, cannot be understood without this driving force of great love for the Lord. This is so crucial that the hymnographer Saint Philotheos, in order to convey Demetrios’ love, borrows images and figures from the famous book of the Old Testament, the Song of Songs. Just as there the bride-soul, set ablaze with love for the Bridegroom Christ, pursues Him and expresses her love through amorous sighs—and likewise the reverse—in the same way, here too, a dialogue unfolds between the Saint and Christ, revealing the Saint’s profound eros for Him, as well as Christ’s eros for the Saint:
“Where do You dwell, my Bridegroom? Where have You pitched Your tent at midday?" The crowned martyr cried out to Christ.
“Arise, come near Me,” the Bridegroom Christ says to the soul of Demetrios. “Let us enter the house of the nard, and partake of the fragrance of My myrrh.”
“Arise, come near Me,” the Bridegroom Christ says to the soul of Demetrios. “Let us enter the house of the nard, and partake of the fragrance of My myrrh.”
“I," says the beloved, "I, O Bridegroom, hasten after You; for the fragrance of Your myrrh surpasses all other myrrh, and this fragrance has made my blood into myrrh.”
One thing now remains: to beseech the Great Martyr Saint Demetrios to visit us with compassion. And to help us by interceding with the Lord, so that we may be delivered from all the afflictions we endure as individuals and as a nation, from the threats of contemporary tyrants, as well as from every threat posed by heretics. “Come, O Martyr of Christ, to us who beseech you for a compassionate visitation; and deliver us, who are afflicted by tyrannical threats and by the terrible frenzy of heresy.”
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
