HIEROMARTYRS OF CHERSONESOS

20 (March 7) the Orthodox Church honors the memory of the holy ancient bishops of Chersonesos. The names of these saints are Basil, Ephraim, Capiton, Eugene, Etherius, Elpidius and Agathodorus. In the Orthodox tradition, martyrs who were priests or bishops are called hieromartyrs.

At that time, the ancient Bosporan Kingdom existed on the territory of Crimea, which received its name from the Cimmerian Bosporus, as the modern Kerch Strait was then called. At the turn of the 3rd–4th centuries, this state was under the protectorate of the Roman Empire.

The city of Jerusalem was then called Aelia Capitolina. In fulfillment of the prophecy of the Lord, set forth in the 21st chapter of the Gospel of Luke, Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans back in the year 70. It humbly awaited its hour to be reborn as the Holy City at the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (325) under Emperor Constantine.

It was Bishop Ephron of Aelia Capitolina (300–314) who sent a mission to Crimea. This was the era of persecution under Diocletian (284–305). The bishop’s action was unusual, daring, and prophetic. It foretold that from a simple, forgotten Christian community in a pagan city, the Palestinian Christians would soon again become not only a local Church, but Jerusalem, the Mother of all Churches.

Wanting to please his Roman sovereign, in order to obtain help in protecting the borders of his state, weakened by the circumstances of the time, the ruler of the Bosporus, Rhadamsades (308–323), following the example of his predecessors, consistently executed preachers.

He did it himself or took advantage of the crowd’s fury. Like the Lord in the Gospel, who was rejected by the Jews and crucified by the pagans, the saints were persecuted by both. In different years, they suffered as martyrs for Christ.

At first, Basil and Ephraim, who were sent first, were executed for their faith. “Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been”, - the mysterious words of the Apocalypse sound (Rev. 6:11). Knowing the fate that awaited them, the new preachers, following their murdered brothers, set out from Jerusalem to preach. There were seven bishops of Chersonesos. The last of them, Etherius, or, according to other sources, Сapiton, managed to escape death and end his days peacefully, in the glory of a confessor.

Then, in the era of persecution, they, according to the Scripture (Heb. 13:14), did not have a permanent city, but were wandering missionary bishops.

“Brothers, redeem the time, because the days are evil,” writes the Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Ephesians (Eph. 5:16). The example of the ancient Chersonesos saints teaches us how often Orthodox Christians suffered from godless rulers who sought to please the evil circumstances of the time.

In honor of the holy martyr Eugene of Chersonesos, Orthodox Metropolitan Eugene of Estonia (born 1957) received his monastic name. Before his election to the episcopal see of Tallinn, he was the rector of the Moscow Theological Academy for almost 24 years. Bishop Eugene was a mentor and leader of a great number of pastors of our Church, future priests, many of whom he personally ordained.

The celebration of the memory of the Martyrs of Chersonesos at the Academy was Lenten and contemplatively solemn. We, being students at theological schools, knew that it was the martyr Eugene who was the heavenly patron of our rector. We prayerfully invoked the intercession of these ancient Crimean saints with a request for help in spiritual growth.

By the mysterious providence of God, the holy martyr Eugenius of Chersonesos and his other fellow martyrs became heavenly patrons of the students within the walls of the Lavra of St. Sergius. Such is the obvious continuity between the Christianization of Crimea in ancient times and the recent spiritual revival of the Russian Church. Such is the ancient and new history of grace, such is, as St. Augustine (354-430) spoke of the incomprehensible providence of God, the predestination of the saints.