Apostle Timothy of the Seventy; Venerable Martyr
Anastasios the Persian
TAKEN FROM January 22nd
Apostle Timothy
He could have remained silent.
He could have remained safely in the shadows – while the noisy procession of drunken pagans went thundering past, caught up in the throes of an idolatrous festival dedicated to the worship of an alien god named Artemis.
As one might have predicted, the reaction to St. Timothy’s challenge was instantaneous . . . and glorious.
The moment the pagans heard the Christian declaring that their gods were false – and that the only True God is the God of the Holy Gospel – they turned on him with a vengeance. First they beat him with staves. Then they dragged him through the streets of Ephesus, while kicking him repeatedly and pummeling him with their fists. Finally, when he was nearly dead, they capped their iniquitous festival (known as Katagogium) by stoning his expiring body without letup.
He died on a city street in the Year of Our Lord 93, according to most historians of the Holy Church. Once the dear companion and loyal follower of Paul, who would write two of his best-known Epistles to this loving brother and fervent evangelist, St. Timothy had departed in triumphant martyrdom to receive his eternal reward.
Born in the Lycaeonian city of Lystra, this native of Asia Minor was the son of a Greek pagan father whose moral and ethical failings were notorious. But St. Timothy’s mother and grandmother were devout Jews, and their piety was universally acknowledged . . . so much so that St. Paul took special pains to mention it in II Timothy (1: 3-5):
I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy, when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also.
Always a prescient judge of character, the Great Apostle and Teacher of Christianity would find himself drawn to St. Timothy from the first day of their acquaintance. The two met in Lystra, on an unforgettable day when St. Paul was engaged along with St. Barnabas in healing the sick and preaching the Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ. On that afternoon, around the year 52, the pious and thoughtful young man was amazed to see the Apostle heal a man who had been crippled from birth. Converted to the Gospel on the spot, St. Timothy would go on to travel widely throughout the Mediterranean world with his mentor, as the two of them carried the banner of Christ Jesus from Palestine to Achaia, Macedonia, Italy and then on to Spain.
A gifted preacher with a gentle spirit, St. Timothy was described with great affection by St. Paul, who began the first of his Epistles to the young man with an unforgettable salutation:
“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope, to Timothy, a true son in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.” (I Timothy 1: 1-2).
Later still, after Paul's glorious martyrdom in Rome, Timothy would become the student of the Holy St. John the Evangelist. And when that great saint was exiled to the Greek island of Patmos as punishment for his Christianizing (by the ruthless Emperor Domentian), St. Timothy would step in and perform with great dedication and zeal for more than 15 years as the Bishop of troubled Ephesus.
In the early Fourth Century, the relics of the Holy Martyr – one of The Seventy Apostles chosen by Christ – would be transported to the great Byzantine capital of Constantinople. There they would be interred in the Church of the Twelve Apostles, alongside the graves of St. Luke the Evangelist and St. Andrew the First-Called.
The great respect and affection that St. Paul felt for this high-spirited apostle can be seen throughout his Epistles to St. Timothy, as the older teacher praises the young one again and again: But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance, persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra—what persecutions I endured. And out of them all the Lord delivered me. (2 Tim. 3: 10-11)
Although the life of this Apostle of The Seventy ended in the excruciating pain of martyrdom, his burning love of Almighty God and his zestful embrace of the created world have made him a beloved figure in the Holy Church for nearly twenty centuries. From his remarkable story we learn a great deal about the joy that always flows from true service to God. How easy it is to imagine the special affection that St. Paul must have felt for this friendly, dedicated, enthusiastic coworker, as the two of them traveled back and forth across the Middle East while proclaiming the Good News of the Gospel!
St. Timothy teaches us how to savor the sheer joy of being alive in our faith, and in loyal, unwavering kinship with our merciful Savior, Christ Jesus, from whom all joyfulness emanates.
Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone
Since thou hadst been instructed in uprightness thoroughly and wast vigilant in all things, thou wast clothed with a good conscience as befitteth one holy. Thou didst draw from the Chosen Vessel ineffable mysteries; and having kept the Faith, thou didst finished a like course, O Hieromartyr and Apostle Timothy. Intercede with Christ God that our souls be saved.
Kontakion in the First Tone
With hymns let us, the faithful, sing Timothy's praises as Paul's divine disciple and faithful companion; with him let us also laud Anastasius the godly-wise, who shone forth with splendour like a star out of Persia and doth drive away from us our bodily sickness and spiritual maladies.
He was an ordinary soldier – a fighter in the Persian Army during an era (the Seventh Century A.D.) when the fierce warriors of Emperor Chozroes II had occupied Jerusalem and most of surrounding Palestine.
As a pagan infantryman, the youthful “Magundat” (his original name) had little interest in things Christian. He had been raised as the son of a Persian sorcerer, after all (a high-ranking Magus named Babo) . . . and he saw no reason to waste his time exploring the beliefs of this strange, alien religion that the people of Palestine called “Christianity.”
Then a miracle took place.
Dispatched with his military unit to Jerusalem – the Persians were at war with the Greeks, led by their famed Emperor Heraclios – the keenly perceptive Magundat was struck by the veneration that the followers of Christ expressed for what seemed to be nothing more than a piece of blood-stained wood.
What was it about the Cross of Jesus that held such power for them? Why were so many of them willing to die at a moment’s notice in order to keep the Persians from capturing and removing this sacred relic from Jerusalem?
As he patrolled the war-torn streets of Jerusalem around 614 A.D. (most of the city had just fallen to the Persian Army a few months before), the young warrior became more and more intrigued by the conversions to Christ that were taking place all around him. How different this new faith – Jesus died so that you may have eternal life! – seemed from the magic-based and sorcery-centered religion his father had preached, back in Bethsaloe (near Ninevah), where Magundat had been born and raised!
Magundat walked the streets. He observed everything carefully. And then it happened; as he watched these fiery Christians at prayer and listened to their ecstatic descriptions of the Sacrifice of the Holy Cross – “He has triumphed over sin and death!” – the curious Persian soldier experienced a sudden inner convulsion. Like a hurled, bronze-tipped spear, the Holy Gospel of the Son of Man pierced the heart of Magundat . . . who instantly decided that he would desert from the Persian Army and convert to this soul-saving new faith.
Baptized by the Holy Patriarch of Jerusalem, St. Modestus, the Persian officer took the Christian name of “Anastasios” . . . and then began learning everything he could about the great martyrs who had died for Christ Jesus during the previous six centuries. Then one night, as he tossed and turned in feverish sleep, the new Christian suddenly found himself adrift on the wings of a shimmering dream.
A tall, shining figure in a robe that blazed with golden radiance stood before Anastasios, holding out a glittering chalice. What could this apparition mean? Amazed, the sleeper heard a powerful voice echoing from the starry sky above the visitor’s head: “Take hold and drink!”
He did. And a moment later, his heart was flooded with an incandescent joyfulness that lifted him toward those distant, gleaming stars so far above the Radiant One’s outstretched hands. In a flash, in a heart-stopping moment, St. Anastasios realized that he had just received the call to martyrdom!
He would remain in Palestine, and he would wait for his hour of glory to arrive.
As the years passed one by one and his faith grew deeper and richer, the restless Anastasios yearned for a monastic life above all else. After entering a monastery near Jerusalem, he would deny himself all the pleasures of the flesh, while continuing to hope for the martyrdom that had been promised him in the fiery dream.
In January of the year 628, his fateful hour finally arrived.
The showdown took place in the Palestinian seacoast town of Caesarea, where St. Anastasios one day encountered a group of Persian magi who – as occupiers of the country under Chozroes II – were loudly proclaiming the truth of their pagan creed. Without breaking stride, the passionate Christian monk approached the group of sorcerers and loudly rebuked them for engaging in idolatrous worship. At the same time, he assured his amazed listeners that the only true faith could be found in the Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
The Magi reacted quickly to the fervent preaching of St. Anastasios, by summoning the nearest group of occupying Persian soldiers and having him arrested. Imprisoned immediately, he was interrogated and beaten. But these sufferings meant nothing to him . . . and when he refused to renounce his faith in the Lord, the conquerors chained him to a group of other captives and marched him all the way back to Persia.
What followed is ghastly to relate, but glorious in its result. First the torturers hung St. Anastasios up by one hand for hours at a time. When this tactic failed to win him over, they plunged his bleeding head again and again into a tank of water, half-drowning him in the process. Once again, however, the iron-willed monk from Jerusalem refused to disavow his Savior. Increasingly enraged, his captors beat him with clubs, then strangled him with a noose.
At last, unable to achieve their perfidious goal of breaking the holy man’s faith, the jailers simply beheaded him. He died on the 22nd of January, in the Year of Our Lord 628, according to most historians of the Holy Church. By then, the ruthless Persian Emperor had burned down all the Christian churches of Jerusalem – while also slaughtering the clergy and carrying off most of the Christians into abject slavery.
Amazingly enough, however, these brutal tactics failed to halt the growth of the Holy Gospel throughout Palestine and the Holy Land. Like St. Anastasios, the Christians of Jerusalem could not be forced to give up their holy faith. And their determination to hold onto the Sacred Word of God was beautifully expressed by the former Persian Army officer, who was told shortly before he died that he could win his release simply by repeating aloud a five-word phrase: “I am not a Christian.”
St. Anastasios might have been speaking for the Holy Church itself when he replied: “Neither before thee, nor before others wilt I renounce my Lord, neither openly nor secretly even in sleep, and no one nowhere and in no way can compel me to do this while in my right mind!”
Those would prove to be his final words.
After his execution, the head of St. Anastasios was eventually conveyed to Rome, where it was interred at the Church of the Holy Martyrs Vincent and Anastasios and has been venerated as a Holy Relic for many centuries since.
Faithful to the end, the Venerable Martyr St. Anastasios has been an inspiration to the Holy Church for the past 1,500 years. His extraordinary life shows us how the miracle of conversion can occur at any time – and how the miracle of faith, sustained in us by the grace of an eternally loving and faithful God, can survive the most painful and taxing trials that can be imagined. Armed with the faith of St. Anastasios, we can accomplish anything!
Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone
Thy Martyr, O Lord, in his courageous contest for Thee received the prize of the crowns of incorruption and life from Thee, our immortal God. For since he possessed Thy strength, he cast down the tyrants and wholly destroyed the demons' strengthless presumption. O Christ God, by his prayers, save our souls, since Thou art merciful.
Kontakion in the First Tone
With hymns let us, the faithful, sing Timothy's praises as Paul's divine disciple and faithful companion; with him let us also laud Anastasius the godly-wise, who shone forth with splendour like a star out of Persia and doth drive away from us our bodily sickness and spiritual maladies.
