SAINT PELAGIA OF TARSUS

On May 17 (4), the Church celebrates the memory of Saint Pelagia of Tarsus. The saint is one of three saints of the same name, highly revered by the Ancient Church.

According to life, Pelagia was a virgin dedicated to God. In accordance with the Orthodox Christian tradition of that time, she had not yet been baptized. She came to faith in Christ through the gospel of Christian preachers. The birthplace of the Apostle Paul, the city of Tarsus was originally a place of evangelism. This was the era of Diocletian’s persecution (303–313). The circumstances of her suffering were very dramatic.

When one of the ruler’s adopted sons fell in love with Pelagia and proposed to her, the maiden, due to her dedication, refused him. Marriage according to Roman law reproduced the logic of adoption. Therefore, having become the wife of a pagan, the virgin would recognize the polytheist as her father. The disciples of Christ considered only God to be their father. This is the essence of Christian dogma. “I believe in the only God, that He is my Father,” says the Creed.

The young man, overcome by passion, committed suicide. Realizing imminent death for her faith, Pelagia called the local bishop. In a vision, the Lord sent her reinforcements, indicating that in the Kingdom she would be awarded three crowns, for faith, purity and martyrdom.

She left her former rich clothes so that the proceeds from their sale would be distributed to help the poor. The ancient Church and its members tried to do charity without limit. According to the Book of Acts: “The multitude of those who believed had one heart and one soul: and no one called anything of his possessions his own, but they had everything in common” (Acts 4:32). As a sign of her future suffering, the martyr, in the image of the Church of the Chosen of the Apocalypse, remained in the white robes of baptism. “They who came out of the great tribulation washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (cf. Rev. 7:14). This is how Pelagia was immersed three times in the font of holy baptism.

The circumstances of the death of the holy martyr were accompanied by extreme loneliness. In the likeness of the Lord Jesus, Whom the disciples abandoned at the moment of suffering (cf. Matt. 26:56), Pelagia’s mother first persuaded her to marry a pagan, and then, having learned that a relative of the ruler committed suicide because of her daughter’s refusal , she herself handed her over to the pagans. Thus, the words of the Lord were literally fulfilled: “A man’s enemies are his own household” (cf. Matt. 10:36). According to the life, Pelagia was killed by being placed in a red-hot copper bull. The pagans of that time used such an idol for exorcism rituals.

Apparently, because of what happened with the young man in love with Pelagia, they considered her possessed and a bringer of misfortune. Thus, over the virgin clothed in Christ, the prophecy about the earthly fate of the Lord was fulfilled, Who Himself was “counted among the evildoers” (Is. 53:12).

Saint Pelagia of Tarsus should be distinguished from the contemporary martyr Pelagia of Antioch (+303) to whom John Chrysostom dedicated a laudatory sermon. Ambrose of Milan also mentioned the saint. According to the life, having learned that the Roman soldiers were coming after her to сapture and rape, she, like the very few martyrs of the early Church, figuratively speaking, fell into the abyss of the sea of ​​death in order to preserve her virginity. The significant symbolism of her name is that the word “Pelagia” is translated from Greek as “sea”. “The sea of ​​worldly vanity,” as it is literally said at Matins in the liturgy of the Orthodox Church, could not destroy her in the waters of oblivion.

Pelagia of Tarsus and Pelagia of Antioch were contemporaries. In the memory of the Church and the liturgical calendar there is preserved the precious name of another, “third” Pelagia - that Pelagia of Antioch (+457), who lived a century and a half later.

Previously, she was a courtesan, but, under the influence of the sermon of a Christian bishop, who refused to denounce her in front of everyone to please the zealots from among his flock and fellow bishops, but praised her beauty, she turned to faith and ended her days in repentance in one of the Palestinian monasteries under the secret image of a man. In the image of her holiness, akin to Mary of Egypt and Taisia ​​of Thebaid, Pelagia of Antioch rejoices in God in the memory of the Church, as one of the previously very sinful great repentant women. The memory of two saints Pelagia of Antioch, martyr and saint, is celebrated on October 21 (8).

This remembrance of saints of the same name, very similar or very different in their course of life, is an important exercise in piety and a way to gain new wonderful and unforgettable intercessors and friends in Heaven. The word saint is not the opposite of the epithet “sinner.” After all, the Church is the Communion of Saints living in heaven and calling them on earth in anticipation of the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus.