The Incorrupt Relics of Saint Eleutherios in Nea Ionia

Saint Eleutherios of Illyricum, the early Christian martyr and bishop, is especially venerated in the Orthodox Church not only for his apostolic life and courageous martyrdom, but also for the incorrupt relics that God has granted as a sign of His grace resting upon the Saint.

According to Orthodox ecclesiastical tradition, the holy relics of Saint Eleutherios were preserved intact after his martyrdom in Rome and became a source of blessing and miracles for the faithful. From the earliest centuries, Christians gathered at his martyrion near the Xerolophos in Constantinople, where his synaxis was celebrated, venerating his body as a tangible witness to the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit.

In Orthodox theology, the incorruption of a saint’s relics is not understood as an automatic or universal mark of sanctity, but as a particular gift of God. In the case of Saint Eleutherios, whose life was marked from youth by purity, ascetic struggle, and fullness of the Spirit, the incorruption of his relics was perceived by the Church as a confirmation of the holiness already manifest in his life and miracles. As the Apostle teaches, “your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 6:19), and in the saints this truth is revealed even beyond death.

Holy Hieromartyr Eleutherios in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Saint Eleutherios was from the city of Rome, very young in age, orphaned of his father, having only his mother, named Anthia, who had been catechized in the faith of Christ by the Holy Apostle Paul. By her he was brought to Bishop Aniketos, and from him the Saint learned the Sacred Scriptures, and he was also enrolled in the order of the clergy. In the fifteenth year of his age he was ordained a deacon, in the eighteenth a presbyter, and in his twentieth year he was appointed Bishop of Illyricum, having previously performed many miracles because of his great virtue.

But since by his teaching he was turning many to the faith of Christ, Emperor Hadrian sent for him and summoned him. And when he proclaimed before him that Christ is the God of all, the emperor gave orders to place him on a bronze bed and to light a great fire beneath it. Then he was to be placed upon a grate that had been exceedingly heated, and again into a red-hot pan filled with oil, tallow, and pitch. Yet by the grace and power of Christ he was preserved unharmed from all these things.

December: Day 15: Holy Hieromartyr Eleutherios

 

December: Day 15:
Holy Hieromartyr Eleutherios
 
(On the Power of Man Over Animals With Moral Implications For the Life of a Christian:
a. Faith and Piety Serve as the Most Powerful Means For Us to Avert Disasters,
b. The Grateful Feelings of a Christian to God for His Ineffable Blessings, and
c. Christians Must Treat Animals Carefully, Wisely and Meekly)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. There are many examples in the lives of the saints proving that it was safer for Christians to live among the wildest and most bloodthirsty beasts than among the pagans. Thus, when the Holy Hieromartyr Eleutherios, now being glorified by the Church, who lived at the end of the first century, miraculously freed himself from the hands of his tormentors, he withdrew to a deserted place and settled among the lairs of wild beasts and lived with the beasts as with sheep. Lions and bears surrounded him, caressed him, and served him. When the royal hunters reported this to the emperor, he sent soldiers to take Eleutherios, but the beasts tore the messengers to pieces. However, the Saint forbade them to attack people, and he himself went to the emperor. They sentenced him to be given to be devoured by beasts. First they released a lioness upon him, then a lion, but they did not cause the Saint the slightest harm and licked his feet. The angry pagans cut off his head.

"Holy Martyr Eleutherios...Either Correct Him or Cut Him Off"

By St. John Moschos

The Spiritual Meadow
(Chapter 145)
 

Life of Blessed Gennadios the Patriarch of Constantinople, 

and of the Reader Charisios

 

We arrived at the temple of Alexandria, in the cenobium of Salama, and met two old presbyters there who told us that they were presbyters of the Church of Constantinople. Also, they told us about the blessed Gennadios, Patriarch of Constantinople.

They told us how he had been greatly troubled by a cleric called Charisios, who lived a wicked life and whom he summoned in an attempt to admonish him. Having not benefited by admonishment, he ordered that he be chastised in a paternal and ecclesiastical manner.