GREAT MARTYR PROCOPIUS

1 Saint Procopius is called Procopius of Caesarea, after the place of his sufferings, Caesarea Maritima. The ruins of this ancient city are located in Israel, between present-day Tel Aviv and Haifa. This martyr should be distinguished from another, Procopius of Caesarea, a famous 6th-century historian who described the reign of Justinian. Saint Procopius suffered for Christ in July 303.

2 The sufferings of Saint Procopius are described in the “Book of the Palestinian Martyrs” by Eusebius of Caesarea. Eusebius became Bishop of Caesarea only eleven years after Procopius’s martyrdom; he therefore personally knew the witnesses to his suffering. Eusebius calls Procopius “the first martyr,” or, in Greek, “protomartyr,” because it was with him that Diocletian’s persecution in Palestine began. As is customary with ancient martyrdoms, Eusebius’s account is laconic.

3 Saint Procopius was a reader and exorcist of the local church. He was arrested and immediately brought before the proconsul. When asked to make a sacrifice to the gods, he replied that a sacrifice must be made only to the One God, whom he, Procopius, personally knows. The pagans believed that God was unknown. Christians professed that God was their Father.

4 The empire was then ruled jointly by Diocletian and Maximian Galerius in the East, and Maximian Hercules and Constantius Chlorus in the West. The emperor was considered the ruler and lord and was deified. His power was indeed great. “If Procopius was not prepared to sacrifice directly to the gods, why not honor the Caesars?” the pagans might have thought. So, they offered him to make a libation to the four rulers. They were thus making a concession but tested the political loyalty of the Christian before them.

5 Procopius refused, proclaiming: “No good thing is a multitude of lords; let there be one lord” But if the refusal to sacrifice to the gods was motivated by personal convictions, then this phrase was a direct quote from Homer’s Iliad, Book II, verse 204. The pagans considered Christians ignorant and openly laughed at them in their written treatises. A literal quotation from the classical work of Homer, whose Greek language was archaic and therefore difficult for the Greeks themselves and turning it into a prophecy about the One Lord Jesus, must have seemed sacrilege to the pagans. It infuriated them. Procopius was beheaded.

6 His words at the trial were a mature confession of biblical and dogmatic faith. “I believe in one God, Father, and I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,” is the outline of all the ancient Creeds.

7 In confessing that “God is our Father and we know Him,” Procopius literally turned to the words of the Lord’s Prayer “Our Father.” In his refusal to make a libation to the rulers, he masterfully quoted Homer’s masterpiece about the One Lord. In this gesture one could sense the fearless and daring exorcist that Procopius was. “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s,” says the Gospel (Matthew 22:21). He did not sacrifice to idols, referring to the Divine Scripture; he did not bow before the rulers, justifying himself with the words of the pagan classic. Thus, he fulfilled the Gospel commandment “to God what is God’s, to Caesar what is Caesar’s” and gave it a new clear interpretation.

8 Understanding and respecting the fundamental truths of faith, as well as the ability to correctly connect and separate the spiritual from the secular, are the signs of a truly religious person. Christianity is not a way of life, nor a law or set of rules, but a dogma. Religion is the ability to separate the divine from the human. Procopius proposes this teaching to the Church as a society of believers.

9 By repeating the words of the Creed at each service, let us recall the great persecutions endured by the saints. Procopius’s example also teaches us to learn to extract Christian truth from the works of secular culture, and for those who speak English, this is the great and inexhaustible English-language literature.

10 And one more thing, as the secular prophet of our time, Steve Jobs, said. The very first and most reliable history of Procopius is found in Eusebius. Tradition called him “the Father of Ecclesiastical History.” His testimony is undoubtedly reliable.

11 Eusebius calls Procopius a protomartyr. Ancient liturgical calendars call him Procopius of Caesarea.

12 But, along with our Procopius, another, very revered and very ancient saint lives in the memory of the Church. This is the Great Martyr Procopius of Caesarea. This is what the ancient Church called saints of royal birth or holding a very high position at court or in the army who became martyrs. The testimony of their faith became known to all and therefore became great. Hence their name “great martyrs.” It was only in the Persian tradition, and later in Slavic Orthodox Christianity, that martyrs who endured particularly great suffering began to be called “Great Martyrs” too.

13 The Great Martyr Procopius of Caesarea came from Palestine; he suffered for Christ in Caesarea Maritima in 303 under Diocletian.

14 The names of his parents, his extremely noble origin and high education are known. Procopius received an imperial appointment to become the proconsul of Alexandria, and his path lay through Palestine. On the way, like Paul in the Acts, Christ Himself appeared to him and predicted His imminent suffering. The passion stories of this saint describe in detail all the circumstances of what happened, list his answers at the trial, the tortures and sufferings he endured. Procopius was highly revered throughout the Christian world and over time his image acquired new, imperial, military, prophetic outlines.

15 But despite everything, it is impossible to shake off the impression that our Procopius and Procopius the Great Martyr are one and the same person. As if popular piety, sermons and hagiographic developments over the centuries did everything possible to recreate and replenish in a grandiose manner the brief biography of Procopius in Eusebius. The latest authoritative studies on the history of sainthood and hagiology seem to confirm this assumption.

16 Finally, the most mysterious, unexpected and astonishing thing in all this is that thanks to the “Great Martyr Procopius” Procopius of Caesarea acquired a new name in the calendar, “Procopius the Reader”. Moreover, “from himself” he was given not only a new name, but also a completely different, autumn-winter, day of celebration - December 5 (November 22), which is presumably connected with the consecration of the temple in his honor, erected in the 6th-7th centuries in Palestine. Recently, in the ancient Byzantine crypt of this church, an inscription was discovered: “Procopius is buried here.”