MARTYR PATRICK OF PRUSA AND HIS COMPANIONS

The days of memory of some saints are especially easy to remember. Thus, on the first day of summer, June 1, the Orthodox Churches that adhere to the Julian calendar celebrate the memory of the holy martyr Patrick of Prusa. The namesake of the great Irish apostle, Saint Patrick was the bishop of the ancient city of Prusa, modern Turkish Bursa, located in the northwest of Asia Minor in the historical region of Bithynia near the Black Sea coast.

Three of his presbyters suffered with him: Acacius, Menander and Polyainus. The exact time of life of the saints is unknown. Perhaps, following the example of the Apostles, they were wandering preachers.

The suffering of Saint Patrick is constructed in the form of a Christian apologetic speech in defense of the true faith and the refutation of paganism. Judging by the details described, it was delivered near the ancient thermal springs located at the foot of the Bithynia Olympus.

The pagans, particularly the local ruler Julius, who held a trial over the saint, considered the healing power of the springs to be miraculous and attributed it to their deities. Patrick denounces pagan superstition and claims that the heat from the underground springs is heated by the hell and its inherent heat. All this was created by God, who alone is worthy of worship and praise.

This statement can be understood both literally, because based on the scientific ideas of that time, Patricius could well believe that hell is underground, and in a spiritual sense. After all, any benefit granted by God through nature to improve natural health, if it becomes an end in itself, and what is even worse, if it becomes an object of worship, leads a person to spiritual and physical destruction.

For his apology for the Christian faith, refusal to sacrifice to idols and public denunciation of the deities, Saint Patrick was plunged into a spring of boiling water. The saint remained unharmed. Then he and three priests with him were beheaded with a sword.

It is noteworthy that in his famous work, “A Word on Death”, Russian theologian and modern saint bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov (1807-1867) quotes Patrick’s Apology from his suffering as proof that, as Ignatius himself apparently believed, hell is literally underground.

Patrick’s Apology is a hymn of praise to Almighty God. It resembles the prayers of praise, like the great blessing of water in the sacrament of baptism and the Day of the Epiphany. It is instructive, filled with poetic power and worthy of being reread separately every time, to ask for the grace of Christian witness and to glorify the saints of God.