MARTYRS SERGIUS AND BACCHUS IN SYRIA

When, on October 19, 1998, I sang for the first time as part of the brotherhood choir under the direction of the ever-memorable Father Archimandrite Matthew (Mormyl), into which I had just been accepted by his grace, the All-Night Vigil was being celebrated. Those moments are impossible to forget. Not only because everything was solemn, liturgical, and magnificent in the Holy Trinity Sergius’ Lavra style, but mainly because hymns were sung in praise of seemingly completely unknown and forgotten saints. It was the eve of the feast of the holy martyrs Sergius and Bacchus. The father of Russian monasticism, St. Sergius of Radonezh, received his monastic name in honor of the first of them.

1 According to hagiographers, Sergius and Bacchus were Roman soldiers. They were not related but were friends and served successfully at the court of Emperor Maximian, while secretly being Christians. Both names were of pagan origin. However, Sergius was already the name of the proconsul of Cyprus from the Book of Acts, whom Paul converted to Christianity (Acts 13:6–12), while Bacchus, in honor of the pagan deity of winemaking and debauchery, otherwise known as Dionysus, is clearly pagan. This means that both Sergius and Bacchus came to faith in Christ through a conscious conversion, or that Sergius was a Christian and converted his brother in arms to the faith.

2 They were accused of professing Christianity, following the denunciation of fellow soldiers who wanted to take their place., since they held high positions, they refused to offer sacrifices to idols. As punishment, their military insignia were torn off. They were dressed in women’s clothing and dragged through the streets of the city with iron blocks around their necks. In this way, the pagans tried to demonstrate that Christianity was supposedly the faith of the weak. But it did not help the pagans, because Sergius and Bacchus did not renounce their faith. Since the trial became public, and it became known that in neighboring Eastern Syria the ruler had once received his position thanks to the help of Sergius and Bacchus, the martyrs were sent to him for trial. The pagans believed that this would allow them to verify whether this high-ranking official was also a secret Christian and, at the same time, by removing the confessors from their familiar surroundings, convince them to renounce Christ otherwhere. However, neither the cunning of the pagans nor the Syrian ruler, who suddenly turned into a cruel traitor, succeeded. Bacchus was flogged to death. Sergius was forced to march in special boots filled with nails, after which he was beheaded in a neighboring town. This happened on October 7, 20 according to the modern secular calendar, which became the day of remembrance of the saints.

3 Sergius’ body was buried in a special place where, after the era of persecution, a chapel characteristic of ancient times was erected to honor the martyrs, traditionally called a martyrium, and then a basilica, the presumed ruins of which have survived to this day. Sergius suffered for Christ in the ancient Syrian city of Resafa, not far from Raqqa and the Euphrates River, which in Christian times was even renamed the city of Sergius, in Greek “Sergiopolis,” which, in an astonishing way, connects it with Sergiev Posad near Moscow, a town dedicated to St. Sergius of Radonezh near his monastery, where the memory of the holy martyrs Sergius and Bacchus is still fervently venerated.