Heraclius
The Holy Martyr Heraclius, beaten to death with clubs
Martyr
Commemorated 14 July — Beaten to death with clubs
Heraclius is a martyr whose whole surviving record is one line of the Greek synaxarion for July 14: he was beaten to death with clubs. Neither his country, his date, nor the persecution under which he suffered has come down, and no century can be assigned to him.
The synaxarion of July 14 closes its roll with three supplementary martyr-notices, of which his is the last: the holy martyr Heraclius, being beaten with clubs, is perfected. Death under the clubs (ῥόπαλα) is one of the commonest ends recorded in the Greek martyrologies — a summary, unceremonious killing, often carried out by a mob or by soldiers on the spot rather than by formal execution — and it is all that is known of him. The name Herakleios, "of Heracles," was widely borne in the Greek east and later by an emperor; there is nothing in the notice to connect this martyr with any of the others who bore it.
He belongs to the very large class of saints whom the Church commemorates without a life: the calendar preserves the fact of the witness, and the acts that once stood behind it have perished.
Feast and commemoration
July 14 (church date; New Calendar civil July 14, Old Calendar civil July 27). The commemoration is carried in the Greek synaxaria of the day; the Slavic calendars and the OCA do not list him, and his memory is recorded here as a Greek commemoration pending fuller witness. There is no proper office; the day's service is that of the Apostle Aquila.
Hymns
Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a martyr)
Thy martyr Heraclius, O Lord, in his contest received an incorruptible crown from thee our God; for possessing thy strength, he cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By his intercessions save our souls.
Original translation from the Greek
Iconography
No identified image exists, and no attribute distinguishes him: a martyr known only by name and by the manner of his death is written, where he is written at all, in the general type — a figure in tunic and mantle with the cross of witness — and in his case the clubs of his passion may be shown in the hands of his executioners in a narrative scene. No pre-1900 icon has been located for this collection.
Disputed questions
- Not to be confused with the several other Heraclii of the martyrologies, nor with the emperor Heraclius (610–641), who is not a saint of the calendar but appears frequently in the lives of this period — in the entries for Anastasius the Persian, Modestus of Jerusalem and Sophronius of Jerusalem — as the emperor who recovered the Cross from the Persians.