MARTYR ANASTASIUS OF PERSIA

The martyr Anastasius of Persia was a great, incredible, apocalyptic saint. His image of holiness embodied the symbols of the defeat of paganism before Christianity and the conversion of great nations to the faith in Christ. At the same time, Anastasius, in the details of his biography that have come down to us—in his renunciation of his former religiosity, in his conversion to Christ, in his very suffering—reflected everything that was happening then, in the last days, in the Age of the Collapse of Civilizations, in the time of plague epidemics, in the era of the Fall of Empires. Today, Anastasius is a forgotten saint. Meanwhile, he was undoubtedly one of the most revered and beloved martyrs of the Ancient Church.

1 On February 4, the Church commemorates the martyr Anastasius of Persia. Before his conversion to Christianity, Anastasius was a hereditary Zoroastrian priest. Zoroastrianism was the official religion of Persia in those centuries, but the empire itself was, to a certain extent, Christian. Acting on the principle of “divide and rule,” the authorities supported non-orthodox denominations within Christianity, primarily Monophysitism and Nestorianism. It would be wrong to say that the main Christian Churches in the Persian Empire were truly heretical. The fact is that the baptism of Emperor Constantine on his deathbed in 337 and the privileged status he gave to the Christian religion during his lifetime attracted the attention of the Persian rulers and caused them great concern. Christians came under suspicion of disloyalty and began to be persecuted. To avoid persecution and extermination, the Persian Churches took advantage of the Christological divisions in Byzantium in the fifth century and proclaimed their theological solidarity with the Monophysites and Nestorians. In earlier times, this factor was often overlooked. Similar to the laws of many empires and countries, Christianity was permitted, but conversion from the official religion, in this case Zoroastrianism, to Christianity was punishable by death.

2 According to his biography, the saint’s original Persian name was Magundates. However, this word is not a name. Adapted to the Greek ear, it simply meant a Zoroastrian priest. The Irano-Byzantine War (602–620) was underway. The first period of the war was victorious for the Persians. In 614, Khosrow II took Jerusalem, captured the Holy Cross, and brought it to Persia. But what seemed to many at the time to be an apocalyptic sign of defeat became for the saint the beginning of a great personal conversion to Christ. “Magundates” participated in this victorious campaign of the Persian army on Chalcedon around 616. Then, when Emperor Heraclius seized the initiative in the war and the Persians retreated, he fell behind the army and remained to live first in Asia Minor and then in Palestine. Around 620, he was baptized with the name Anastasius. For seven years he hid from his fellow tribesmen in a monastery. After seeing a vision in a dream about the Holy Chalice, which he was supposed to drink from, he left the monastery and went to Caesarea in Palestine. There he was recognized by Zoroastrian priests, handed over to the authorities, and taken prisoner to Persia for trial. For refusing to renounce Christ, he was strangled with a rope along with 70 other Christian prisoners. Before his death, Anastasius thanked God for “such an easy death.”

3 The life of the saint is reliable and even has doctrinal authority. It is cited in the Acts of the Seventh Ecumenical Council (787) as one of the written testimonies in favor of icon veneration. The same Acts mention healings from the relics of Anastasius, and the envoys of Pope Adrian (+795), Presbyters Peter and John, testify to miracles from the icon of the martyr, which was then located in one of the Roman monasteries. The Life of Anastasius is one of the important sources for studying the 26-year Irano-Byzantine War (602–628). It was written by one of his companions during captivity. The author supplemented his own eyewitness account with information from Christian prisoners captured along with Anastasius, as well as from the Persian soldiers who accompanied them. Like Maximus the Confessor (580–662), whose memory the Church celebrates the day before Anastasius, he was a man of two eras. He lived during the collapse of civilizations and the fall of empires. Just as in the life of Maximus, his biography was greatly influenced by the last Irano-Roman war in history. Like Maximus, Anastasius was roughly the same age as the Islamic prophet Muhammad (570–632).

4 Anastasia’s involvement in specific historical events connects her with another Persian martyr for Christ, James Intercisus (+421), who is commemorated on December 10. The latter’s death at the hands of fanatical Zoroastrians was one of the causes of the Roman Persian War (421–422). Almost immediately after Anastasius’ martyrdom, on February 28, 628, Shah Khosrow, “the lord and king of all the earth beloved by the gods,” was killed. Soon the empire fell under the onslaught of the Arabs. Zoroastrianism was doomed. But Byzantium also suffered greatly, losing two-thirds of its territories. The fact is that the devastating war between the two empires, which essentially maintained the harmony of the ancient Mediterranean world, greatly weakened the forces of both and made them unable to resist the new conquerors.

5 The dates of Anastasius’ life can be traced quite clearly. Having become a monk in Palestine in 620, he was taken to Persia for trial in 627 and beheaded for his Christian faith on February 4, 628. The Church commemorates Anastasius twice a year: on February 4 and, two days later, on February 6. On this day, the transfer of his relics from Persia to Caesarea in Palestine and then to Constantinople is commemorated. This double celebration is further proof that St. Anastasius was highly revered in ancient times. In the liturgical service of the feast, Anastasius is honored with a common kontakion with the Apostle Timothy, whose memory is celebrated on the same day. ‘Let us the faithfull praise the Holy Apostle Timothy, the Compagnon of Paul in his travels and together with him. Let us honor the wise Anastasius, who came as a star from Persia for the healing of the passions of our souls and the diseases of our bodies”. Although they lived in completely different eras, the memory of Timothy, as an apostle and direct disciple of Paul, is certainly very significant. This common hymn of Timothy and Anastasius is undoubtedly a sign of the latter’s great veneration.

6 Zoroastrian priests were often referred to in Greek as a “magi.” This gave hagiographers reason to speak of Anastasius as a converted sorcerer, which brought him closer to another similar saint from a much earlier era, a converted sorcerer from Antioch named Cyprian. However, this is unlikely to be the case. The original Greek text of the Gospel also refers to the three kings who came to Bethlehem to venerate the newborn Christ with gifts as “magi.” This is why the kontakion compares Saint Anastasius to the star from Persia that came to Christ. The name “Anastasius” itself is one of the very few typical Christian names and translates as “resurrection.” While defeating the Byzantines, the Persians plundered the Church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem and captured the Holy Cross. Participating in this campaign, perhaps as a Zoroastrian chaplain, the future Anastasius undoubtedly witnessed Christian martyrs, of whom there were many at the time. Perhaps he tried to persuade them to renounce their faith. Instead of a curse, he received a prayer in return for the gift of Christian faith. Thus, he became Anastasius, that is, a “resurrection man.” Recognizing his past guilt for participating in the suffering of the innocent, he thanked God that his death, as he realized, would be instantaneous, filled with faith, and therefore peaceful and without shame. Orthodox believers pray for such a blessing for themselves at every divine service.