Hesychius the Senator
The Holy Martyr Hesychius the Senator
Martyr · d. c. 302, drowned in a river of Bithynia
Commemorated 2 March — Martyrdom by drowning under Maximian
Hesychius (†c. 302) was a Roman senator and high official of the imperial palace under the emperor Maximian, martyred in the Diocletianic persecution. When Maximian ordered that Christians be stripped of their military belts and dignities and expelled from his service, Hesychius willingly gave up his rank rather than deny Christ. Summoned and reproached by the emperor for choosing disgrace over his high estate, he confessed the faith openly; whereupon Maximian had a great millstone bound to him and cast him into a river of Bithynia, where he was drowned. He is numbered among the confessing officials of the imperial court who chose the loss of all things for Christ, and is commemorated on March 2.
Hesychius belonged to the small company of Christians who held high station in the court of Maximian at the height of the persecution that Diocletian and his colleagues unleashed upon the Church at the turn of the fourth century. He is styled "the Senator" (ὁ Συγκλητικός) — a man of senatorial or patrician rank, and, the synaxarion adds, one of the foremost men about the palace, held in honour and dignity.
The occasion of his martyrdom is the persecution's assault upon Christians in imperial and military service. Maximian, unwilling to keep in his household and his armies men who would not sacrifice to the gods, issued an edict that Christians should be deprived of their military belts — the cingulum, the badge of office and rank — and cast out from the palace and the service in disgrace. Many Christian soldiers and officials, rather than renounce Christ, surrendered their belts and their honours gladly, counting the loss as gain. Hesychius was among them: he laid down his rank and his dignity without complaint, choosing the reproach of Christ above the favour of the emperor.
When word came to Maximian that Hesychius — a man he had honoured — had chosen to be numbered among the outcast Christians, he summoned him and put to him the choice more sharply, reproaching him that he had preferred degradation and the company of the despised to the standing he had enjoyed at court. Hesychius answered with an open confession of Christ, declaring that no earthly honour was worth the loss of the true God, and that he rejoiced to be dishonoured for the Name. The emperor, unable to move him, condemned him to death by drowning: a heavy millstone was fastened to him — the tradition says to his right hand — and he was thrown into the midst of a river of Bithynia and drowned, sealing his confession with his blood about the year 302.
Of his origins, family, and earlier life the synaxaria transmit nothing further; he is remembered wholly for the manner of his end — the courtier who counted his rank as refuse, and went down under the millstone rather than deny his Lord.
Feast and commemoration
Hesychius is kept on March 2 (church date; Old Calendar civil March 15). The commemoration is proper to the Greek tradition and the Synaxarion of Constantinople; the Slavic calendars of the day lead instead with the hieromartyr Theodotus of Cyrenia, with whom Hesychius shares the day. March 2 falls within Great Lent, on whose weekdays the full Liturgy is not served; the saint's memory is therefore kept with the Lenten office and the hymns of the Triodion, and no proper Epistle and Gospel are appointed at a Liturgy.
Hymns
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy Martyr Hesychius, O Lord, in his contest has received from Thee, our God, the crown of incorruption; for, having Thy strength, he cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By his prayers, O Christ God, save our souls.
Original translation from the Greek
Iconography
No early identity-verified image of Hesychius is known to this collection. Where he is depicted he is shown, in the manner of the martyrs of the imperial court, as a beardless or short-bearded man in the rich garments of a Roman official — chlamys and tablion — bearing the martyr's cross; the narrative scene proper to him is his drowning, the millstone about him as he is cast into the water. The absence of a stored image is noted; the entry is written without an icon: block.