MARTYRS THYRSOS, LEUKIOS AND KALLINIKOS

Saints Leukios, Thyrsos and Kallinnikos suffered for Christ during the reign of Emperor Decius (249–251). They were highly revered in the Ancient Church, both in the East and in the West, in Syria, Asia Minor and on both sides of the Pyrenees.

There is sometimes a surprising symmetry in the dates of commemoration of saints. Thus, two days before Christmas according to the Gregorian calendar, on December 23, the Church celebrates the memory of the martyrs Menas, Hermogenes and Eugraphus. Two days after, that is, the 27th, is the memory of Thyrsos, Kallinnikos and Leukios. Both groups of saints are connected by an amazing kinship of faith and martyrdom.

The fact is that having suffered during various persecutions, they similarly ‘gave their lives for their friends’ (John 15:13). That is, following the example of Christ, by their very death they brought to faith those who did not believe before. This is the mysterious Method of Grace. Thus, faith is given through the prayer of the Church, as a gift given freely. Therefore, the Church has always prayed for the gift of faith for non-believers, and this is the meaning of prayer for the pagan Emperors, which, according to the testimony of ancient Christian apologists, was practiced in the early churches.

Let us recall that, seeing the example of Menas’ firm Christian confession, Hermogenes, formerly a pagan philosopher by conviction, believed in Christ and suffered himself. In turn, Eugraphus, formerly also a pagan, a bureaucrat, “the emperor’s secretary,” as the life calls him, exposed his comrades in error as wrong, for which he was awarded the Baptism of Blood. This is how the Ancient Church called the martyrdom of those who died for Christ, having previously been unbaptized. The martyrdom of Leukios, Thyrsos and Kallinnikos took place in a similar way.

The place of the martyrdom of the saints was Bithynia. This historical region is in the North-West of Asia Minor, adjacent to the Bosporus Strait and the Black Sea. In ecclesiastical terms, Bithynia is known as the place of suffering of many martyrs during the Great Persecution of Diocletian (303–313), including Saints Anthimus, St. George and Panteleimon, and also as the site of the First Ecumenical Council, which subsequently took place in the Bithynian city of Nicaea in 325.

Leukios was a dignitary in the city of Antioch of Pisidia. This city should be distinguished from the great capital of the East - Antioch of Syria. When Emperor Decius, whom the surviving inscriptions of that period call the “restorer of shrines,” while Christians are called “atheists” and “atheists,” decided to persecute Christians in the name of the traditional deities of Rome, the executor of the order arrived in Antioch.

Leukios denounced him for his readiness, ‘in the name of the gods’, who are immortal, to deprive the only and so brief life of mortal people. So, he took the side of the Christians, confessed the faith he had acquired, for which he was subsequently tortured and beheaded. Like any educated person of his time, he could well have been a philosopher. It is known that a considerable number of philosophers recognized the One God, but considered other gods conditional, perceiving them as a kind of symbols. And of course, they considered it unacceptable to kill for the sake of the Gods. So, philosophy, literally, love of wisdom, became for Leukios the path to True Wisdom, which is Jesus Himself.

A certain Thyrsos was a witness to this public lawlessness in the name of the pagan “fatherly laws”. According to his life, he was a professional athlete. Perhaps he competed at the Olympics, or perhaps he was a gladiator. You should know that, contrary to popular belief, the work of the most important of these fighters was often professional. Like modern athletes, they had a contract and fought a certain number of fights per year. It is interesting that their wives had the privilege of walking with their heads uncovered.

Thyrsos was struck by Leukios’ steadfastness in enduring torture and torment. Like any person who recognizes only strength, he, probably a former warrior, and now an athlete, was amazed how a ‘nobleman’, a person, by definition, weak, and pampered, can be persistent in suffering. He was deeply astonished how a philosopher, and philosophy is a constant search and change of beliefs, can find the Truth and be ready to suffer for it.

Kallinikos, the third of the saints celebrated on this day, was a pagan priest. He made bloody sacrifices to the gods. According to the life, Thyrsos was not executed immediately, but was brought to the city of Apollonia. Its exact location has not been preserved; all that is known is that it was one of 30 (!) cities of antiquity dedicated to the deity of Apollo. This alone indicates how powerful and, as they thought, invincible paganism was in those days. And how unpunished the pagans felt when they killed Christians. But the Lord arranged it in such a way that even a trace of most of these previously very significant settlements dedicated to the false god disappeared. Grace touched the heart of Kallinikos at the sight of the torture and execution of Thyrsos, who had previously been an invincible winner, and now subjected himself to slaughter for the Lamb of Christ.

It is noteworthy that Roman warriors, soldiers, and athletes often chose as their ideal not some all-conquering Hercules, a mighty demigod or a giant, but the Sufferer Lord Jesus. And in this love for Jesus, which did not know dogma or the teachings of the Law of God, the Roman soldiers became an example for all subsequent times. The tragic paradox is that when the Roman army became officially Christian, or “Christ-loving,” its soldiers often forgot about the commandments of the Lord.

By the way, at the same time as Leukios, Thyrsos and Kallinikos in another Bithynian city, Nicaea, the martyr Tryphon suffered for Christ. This indicates that persecution in that area was widespread. The memory of the three holy martyrs was celebrated together, but Thyrsos received the greatest veneration among them in his time. At the end of the 4th century, his relics were transferred to Constantinople. In the Ancient Church this meant that the veneration of the saint became universal. Many churches and even villages in France, Portugal, and other countries are named after the martyr.

Thus, it became obvious that the martyrs Firs, Kalinnik, and Levkiy are the names written in the “Book of Life” (Apoc. 13:8).

Let us remember that the 87-year-old servant from the ‘Cherry Orchard’, Thyrsos, was named in honor of the martyr. According to Chekhov’s story, while the owners of the estate were talking about beauty, the old man was boarded up in the abandoned house and, thus, doomed to a painful death.

More than four centuries later, the name Kallinikos was borne by the Patriarch of Constantinople. By order of Emperor Justinian II (669–711), he was walled up alive in a wall. Saint Kallinikos I (+705), a true passion-bearer, is also venerated as a saint (August 23 (September 5)). How amazing is the intersection of images in the succession of holiness.

Let us also remember Leukios. ‘He who overcomes will be clothed in white robes; and I will not blot out his name from the book of life, but I will confess his name before My Father and before His Angels,” says the Apocalypse (Rev. 3:5). The name ‘Leukios’ means ‘light’, ‘clear’, ‘white’. Most likely, the real name of the saint has not reached us. Christians, who orally transmitted the story of his suffering from generation to generation, called him with these biblical words. It is important to realize that having ‘washed his robes in the Blood of the Lamb’ (Rev. 7:14), with Thyrsos and Kallinikos, Leukios intercedes for the Wandering and Persecuted Church in these Last Times.