Hesychius the Wonderworker
Our Venerable Father Hesychius the Wonderworker
Venerable · Wonderworker · b. 8th century, at Adrineia in Bithynia — d. 8th century (in peace)
Commemorated 6 March — Greek commemoration ("the Wonderworker"); the Slavic and OCA calendars keep him March 5 ("the Faster")
Hesychius the Wonderworker (eighth century) was a monastic ascetic of Bithynia in Asia Minor, born at the coastal town of Adrineia and glorified for the solitary life he led on Mount Maionis, where he endured the assaults of demons, of wild beasts, and of robbers, and was granted the gift of wonders. The Greek calendar keeps him on March 6, styling him "the Wonderworker" (ὁ Θαυματουργός); the Slavic books and the Orthodox Church in America keep the same Bithynian ascetic on March 5 under the epithet "the Faster." His life is known only in brief from the synaxarion, but he is honoured among the venerable fathers of the Byzantine ascetic tradition.
The surviving notice of Hesychius is short, and the entry keeps to it. He was born in the eighth century at Adrineia, a town of the coast of Bithynia on the southern shore of the Black Sea, and in due time forsook the world for the monastic life. He withdrew to Mount Maionis (Maïonissa), a height of the Bithynian country, and there gave himself to solitude, silence, and unceasing prayer in the manner of the hesychast fathers whose stillness (hēsychia) his very name evokes.
The synaxarion remembers his struggle chiefly as a warfare against three enemies of the solitary: the demons, who assailed him with terrors and temptations; the wild beasts of the uninhabited mountain; and the robbers who preyed on the lonely places and threatened the hermit's life. Against them all Hesychius stood firm, and God rewarded his patience with the grace of wonders, whence the Greek tradition surnames him the Wonderworker. He reposed in peace, still in the eighth century, having filled the measure of the ascetic life.
Feast and commemoration
Hesychius is commemorated on March 6 (church date; New Calendar civil March 6, Old Calendar civil March 19) in the Greek tradition, together with the Forty-Two Martyrs of Amorion who lead the day; the Slavic and OCA calendars keep him on March 5, among the saints of that day (where he is styled "the Faster"). Because both dates fall almost always within the Great Fast, no proper Liturgy of the saint is ordinarily served (see the note on readings under the martyrs of Amorion).
Hymns
Troparion — Tone 8
With the streams of thy tears thou didst cultivate the barrenness of the desert, and by thy sighings from the depths thou didst bear fruit a hundredfold in labours; and thou becamest a luminary, shining upon the world by thy wonders, O Hesychius our righteous father. Intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Original translation from the Greek
Iconography
Hesychius is depicted in the type of the venerable ascetic — an aged monk of the mountain, in the dark habit, with grey hair and long beard, holding a scroll or with hand raised in blessing, and sometimes shown against the rocks of his solitude. No early identified image of him is known, and as a minor March saint he lies outside the range of the great illustrated menologion of the first half of the year. No storable icon of certain identity has been found.
Disputed questions
- The two dates and the two epithets. The same Bithynian ascetic is commemorated on March 6 in the Greek synaxarion, as Hesychius the Wonderworker, and on March 5 in the Slavic and OCA calendars, as Hesychius the Faster of Bithynia — both notices placing him in the eighth century, at Adrineia and on Mount Maionis, and describing the same combat with demons, beasts, and robbers. The two are here taken to be one saint under a divided commemoration and a divided epithet; this collection authors him on March 6 (the Greek day and designation), noting the March 5 Slavic keeping, which is cross-referenced in the calendar for that day. The identification, though very probable, rests on the close agreement of the two notices rather than on an explicit statement in the sources.
- Not to be confused with the several other saints named Hesychius: the martyr Hesychius the Senator of Bithynia (†c. 302, kept March 2), and the sixth-century Hesychius the Horebite of Mount Horeb (kept October 3), and Hesychius the Presbyter of Jerusalem — each a distinct saint of a different age.