By Fr. George Dorbarakis
1. Saints Markianos and Martyrios lived when Saint Paul the Confessor was Patriarch of Constantinople, after the repose of Saint Alexander, during the reign of Constantius, who was Arian-minded. The holy Patriarch was exiled to Armenia and met his blessed end at the hands of the Arians, who drowned him. At that time, Saints Markianos and Martyrios were also killed by the sword on account of their Orthodox faith and were buried at the Melandisia Gate, in the district of Deuteros, within Constantinople. Later, our Holy Father John Chrysostom rebuilt the church of these Saints from its foundations.
2. Saints Markianos and Martyrios were disciples and “followers” of their teacher, Saint Paul, Patriarch of Constantinople, who was Equal-to-the-Apostles and a Confessor. He was the teacher not only of the saints celebrated today, of course, but also of the catholic Church of Christ, because he struggled unto death for the true doctrines of the Church, opposing the arch-heretic Arius, who distorted the faith in the Holy Trinity by reducing the Lord Jesus Christ to the level of a created being. The saints, therefore, also defended the Orthodox faith, following precisely in the footsteps of their teacher. This means that their struggle for Orthodoxy was not merely a matter of words, but was manifested above all in their deeds and their lives. For our Church, as was emphatically demonstrated by Saint Paul the Confessor and by the saints we celebrate today, the Orthodox faith is not confined to words but embraces life in its entirety. In other words, Orthodoxy is true Orthodoxy to the extent that it is also orthopraxy, sometimes confirmed even through the martyrdom of blood.
The hymnographer of today’s feast repeatedly emphasizes these truths. First, he speaks of the relationship between Saints Markianos and Martyrios and their teacher Paul: “Obeying Paul,” he notes, “the equal of the Apostles, the shepherd and teacher of the true doctrines”; “Having kept the Orthodox faith invulnerable, following Paul, the wise teacher”; and “Following closely in the footsteps of the holy Shepherd, adorned with Orthodoxy.”
With great sensitivity to the relationship between Orthodoxy and orthopraxy, the hymnographer continually writes: “Having strengthened Orthodoxy with a valiant mind and perfect resolve, you completed your struggle through martyrdom, O martyrs of the Lord.” (You completed your struggle through martyrdom, O martyrs of the Lord, having strengthened Orthodoxy with a valiant mind and perfect resolve.) He also writes: “You proved to be most wise followers of the doctrines of Paul, the divine minister of the sacred mysteries; imitating his way of life, O martyrs, you endured the contest with steadfastness.” (You appeared, O martyrs, as followers of the most wise doctrines of Paul, the divine minister of the sacred mysteries. Having imitated his way of life, you endured the contest with patience and strength.)
The hymnographer, speaking here as the voice of the Church, affirms what is self-evident concerning the Orthodox faith: that it constitutes the light and beauty of the world. Thus, he writes, “They illumined the world with the light of Orthodoxy” and “Shining with Orthodoxy in the divine Spirit.” Heresy, by contrast, is darkness, the darkening of the human person, as well as division and confusion. Hence the words: “You completely escaped the darkness of Arius” and “They cast down the division of Arius and Nestorius, avoiding the confusion of Sabellius and Severus.”
This is what the holy Elder Paisios also said, among other things: “Orthodoxy is a fragrance: the more deeply one examines it, the stronger its fragrance becomes; whereas heresy is filth: the more one stirs it up, the more its stench rises.” The reason for the exalted nature of Orthodoxy is that it constitutes the truth: it preserves and lives out, without distortion, the Lord who has been revealed to us, abiding in the presence of the Holy Spirit. Consequently, perseverance in the Orthodox faith and life leads to life in God and Christ, whereas turning away from Orthodoxy leads a person to perdition and into the deadly snares of the evil devil.
For this reason, all our saints, including Saints Markianos and Martyrios, regarded the choice of the Orthodox faith as a given—that is, faith and life within the Church—even if this meant, as we have already said, their own death. For they knew that there is nothing worse than heresy, which separates a person from the presence of God. “Persecuted for the sake of the consubstantial Trinity, O blessed ones, you chose death by the sword rather than the heretics’ foolish utterances.” (Persecuted for the sake of the consubstantial Trinity, O blessed ones, you preferred death by the sword to heretical nonsense.) And again: “Longing to behold the Word who shone upon the earth from the Virgin for our sake, O champions, you confessed Him to be consubstantial with the Father and endured the most violent death with the firmest resolve.” (Because you longed to behold the Word of God, who came as a light upon the earth from the Virgin Mary for our sake, you confessed Him, O champions, to be consubstantial with the Father, and for this reason endured a most violent death with the firmest resolve.)
We see the same response, for example, in the Sayings of the Desert Fathers, in the account of Venerable Moses the Ethiopian. Some of his fellow ascetics tested him by insulting him with the worst accusations, calling him a fornicator, an adulterer, a proud man, a glutton, a vainglorious man, and so forth. The venerable father did not react to any of these “accusations,” but humbly accepted them. However, when they accused him of being a heretic, he reacted sharply. Later, when they asked him with a smile why he had reacted only to the last accusation, he replied: “The other accusations do me good, because they humble me. But the accusation of heresy separates me from God Himself.”
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
2. Saints Markianos and Martyrios were disciples and “followers” of their teacher, Saint Paul, Patriarch of Constantinople, who was Equal-to-the-Apostles and a Confessor. He was the teacher not only of the saints celebrated today, of course, but also of the catholic Church of Christ, because he struggled unto death for the true doctrines of the Church, opposing the arch-heretic Arius, who distorted the faith in the Holy Trinity by reducing the Lord Jesus Christ to the level of a created being. The saints, therefore, also defended the Orthodox faith, following precisely in the footsteps of their teacher. This means that their struggle for Orthodoxy was not merely a matter of words, but was manifested above all in their deeds and their lives. For our Church, as was emphatically demonstrated by Saint Paul the Confessor and by the saints we celebrate today, the Orthodox faith is not confined to words but embraces life in its entirety. In other words, Orthodoxy is true Orthodoxy to the extent that it is also orthopraxy, sometimes confirmed even through the martyrdom of blood.
The hymnographer of today’s feast repeatedly emphasizes these truths. First, he speaks of the relationship between Saints Markianos and Martyrios and their teacher Paul: “Obeying Paul,” he notes, “the equal of the Apostles, the shepherd and teacher of the true doctrines”; “Having kept the Orthodox faith invulnerable, following Paul, the wise teacher”; and “Following closely in the footsteps of the holy Shepherd, adorned with Orthodoxy.”
With great sensitivity to the relationship between Orthodoxy and orthopraxy, the hymnographer continually writes: “Having strengthened Orthodoxy with a valiant mind and perfect resolve, you completed your struggle through martyrdom, O martyrs of the Lord.” (You completed your struggle through martyrdom, O martyrs of the Lord, having strengthened Orthodoxy with a valiant mind and perfect resolve.) He also writes: “You proved to be most wise followers of the doctrines of Paul, the divine minister of the sacred mysteries; imitating his way of life, O martyrs, you endured the contest with steadfastness.” (You appeared, O martyrs, as followers of the most wise doctrines of Paul, the divine minister of the sacred mysteries. Having imitated his way of life, you endured the contest with patience and strength.)
The hymnographer, speaking here as the voice of the Church, affirms what is self-evident concerning the Orthodox faith: that it constitutes the light and beauty of the world. Thus, he writes, “They illumined the world with the light of Orthodoxy” and “Shining with Orthodoxy in the divine Spirit.” Heresy, by contrast, is darkness, the darkening of the human person, as well as division and confusion. Hence the words: “You completely escaped the darkness of Arius” and “They cast down the division of Arius and Nestorius, avoiding the confusion of Sabellius and Severus.”
This is what the holy Elder Paisios also said, among other things: “Orthodoxy is a fragrance: the more deeply one examines it, the stronger its fragrance becomes; whereas heresy is filth: the more one stirs it up, the more its stench rises.” The reason for the exalted nature of Orthodoxy is that it constitutes the truth: it preserves and lives out, without distortion, the Lord who has been revealed to us, abiding in the presence of the Holy Spirit. Consequently, perseverance in the Orthodox faith and life leads to life in God and Christ, whereas turning away from Orthodoxy leads a person to perdition and into the deadly snares of the evil devil.
For this reason, all our saints, including Saints Markianos and Martyrios, regarded the choice of the Orthodox faith as a given—that is, faith and life within the Church—even if this meant, as we have already said, their own death. For they knew that there is nothing worse than heresy, which separates a person from the presence of God. “Persecuted for the sake of the consubstantial Trinity, O blessed ones, you chose death by the sword rather than the heretics’ foolish utterances.” (Persecuted for the sake of the consubstantial Trinity, O blessed ones, you preferred death by the sword to heretical nonsense.) And again: “Longing to behold the Word who shone upon the earth from the Virgin for our sake, O champions, you confessed Him to be consubstantial with the Father and endured the most violent death with the firmest resolve.” (Because you longed to behold the Word of God, who came as a light upon the earth from the Virgin Mary for our sake, you confessed Him, O champions, to be consubstantial with the Father, and for this reason endured a most violent death with the firmest resolve.)
We see the same response, for example, in the Sayings of the Desert Fathers, in the account of Venerable Moses the Ethiopian. Some of his fellow ascetics tested him by insulting him with the worst accusations, calling him a fornicator, an adulterer, a proud man, a glutton, a vainglorious man, and so forth. The venerable father did not react to any of these “accusations,” but humbly accepted them. However, when they accused him of being a heretic, he reacted sharply. Later, when they asked him with a smile why he had reacted only to the last accusation, he replied: “The other accusations do me good, because they humble me. But the accusation of heresy separates me from God Himself.”
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
