Therapon

ON ST. THERAPON, PRIEST, MARTYR IN THE SARDIAN DIOCESE OF LYDIA.

Synopsis and place of martyrdom from the Mss. Synaxaria.

Therapon Priest, Martyr in the Sardian diocese of Lydia (S.)

D. P.

[1] Of the Sardian Church in Lydia the Priest Therapon, has cultus on this day in the Synaxaria of Chiflet and the Ambrosian one signed F. O. number 148, Name reported on various days in the Synaxaria, with the same elogium which we found in the Clermont one on May XXVI; and in that which we gave under the name of Emperor Basil, and another which in Combefis at Paris we found on May XXV; but in two Mazarin ones on May XXVIII. In this great diversity it pleases to hold May XXVII, because to the same, but chiefly on May 27. as a more certain index, agrees the metrical Ephemeris of the Greeks: not that one which at the beginning of this month we explained, but that which scattered for individual days is found in the Synaxarium of Chiflet, sometimes different from the other, where thus is had:

"Εἰκάδι ἑβδομάτῃ τύψαν σθεναρὸν Θεράπωντα," The seventh following the twentieth scourges Therapon. There also is read a Distich, customarily prefaced to the elogium, of this kind. "Μαστίξι θνήσκων Δεσπότου τοῦ σοῦ χάραν, Εὔνους θεράπων χρημάτισας, Θέραπον." Receiving lashes for love of Your Lord, You proved yourself, Therapon, a good servant.

For this is what the very name Therapon signifies. There also agrees as to the day the Arabo-Egyptian Martyrology, preserved at the Maronite College in Rome, and from the Greek rituals as appears taken almost wholly, as to days and names of Saints. But let us bring forth the elogium from the Clermont Ms.

[2] Synopsis of the martyrdom, "Οὗτος ἦν Ἱερεὺς κατὰ τήν μετρόπολιν Σάρδις καὶ διὰ τὴν ἀρίστην ἀυτοῦ πολιτίαν κρατηθεὶς παρὰ τοῦ Ἄρχοντος Οὐαλλεριανοῦ, τους Χριστιανοὺς διδᾴσκων, δεσμεῖται κὰι ποινὰς ὑφίσταται. Μετὰ ταῦτα ἄγεται δέσμιος Συναὸν καὶ Ἄνκυρα καὶ ἑπὶ του Ἀστελῆ καλουμένου ποταμοῦ, ὕπτιος ἐπ᾽ ἐδάφους ἁπλωθεὶς καταξέεται ῥάβδοις τὰς σάρκας· καὶ πιανθεῖσα ή γῆ τῷ ἅιματι άυτοῦ φυτὸν βαλάνου ἀνέδωκε μεγίστον λίαν, ὃ μέχρι τῆς σήμερον δείκνυται ἀείφυλλον ὂν, πᾶσαν νόσον καὶ πᾶσαν μαλακίαν ἰώμενον· ἔπειτα ἄγεται ἐκεῖθεν ὑπὸ τὸ θέμα τῶν Θρακησίων παρὰ τὸν ποταμὸν Ἕρμον, ἐνᾧ ἡ ἐπισκοπὴ ἡ λεγομένη Σάταλα, ὐπὸ τὴν μετρόπολιν Σάρδις τελοῦσα· καὶ πολλᾶις ὑποβληθεὶς ἀικίαις ἔςχατον τὸν τοῦ μαρτυρίου στέφανον ἐκομίσατο." Which thus in Latin you will read.

[3] endured in various places: This man, when he was a priest in the Sardian Metropolis, on account of his excellent way of life, was apprehended by the President Valerian while he was teaching the Christians. Bound therefore he is subjected to various punishments: after this, bound he is led off to Synaus and Ancyra: and near the river called Astales, supine on the pavement is stretched out; and his flesh is so torn with rods, that the earth was watered with his blood: where a sprout of an oak germinated as a most great plant, which is still shown with perpetual green leaves, by its virtue every disease and weakness curing. After this thence he was led into the territory of the Thracesii near the river Hermus, in the Bishopric of the Satali, under the Metropolis of Sardis; where subjected to many afflictions, at length he received the crown of martyrdom.

[4] Almost the same things are read in the other Synaxaria I have cited, with slight diversity of a few words; in Lydia consummated. except that in the Basilian one near the beginning is said, that he had converted many ethnics and unfaithful to our Lord Jesus Christ and baptized them. As to the places mentioned in the Elogium; besides the very metropolis of Lydia, in which the saint had served as Priest, notable is Synaus, an Episcopal city of Phrygia, under the Archbishop of Hierapolis: likewise Ancyra, a city of Galatia, omitted in the Basilian Synaxarium; and the river Hermus, watering Lydia; and finally the Bishopric of the Satali, under the said metropolis: which when is said to be in the region of the Thracesii, we ought not to think of Thrace, the region of Europe, neighbouring Constantinople: but some portion of Lydia, to which nevertheless soldiers brought from Thrace for garrison, may have given the name.