Hypatius and Theodulus
The Holy Martyrs Hypatius the Tribune and Theodulus the Soldier, who suffered with Leontius at Tripoli
Martyr · d. traditionally c. 73, under Vespasian, at Tripoli in Phoenicia
Commemorated 18 June — Beheaded at Tripoli in Phoenicia with the martyr Leontius
Hypatius, a tribune, and Theodulus, a soldier under him, were sent by the governor Hadrian to arrest the Christian officer Leontius at Tripoli in Phoenicia, and were converted on the road: Hypatius, struck down by fever, was healed after calling three times on "the God of Leontius" as an angel had told him in his sleep, and Theodulus was won by what he had watched. They came into the city as catechumens instead of captors, were baptised by the man they had come to seize, and when Hadrian tried them refused to sacrifice. Hypatius was torn with the iron claws and Theodulus beaten with rods; both were then beheaded, dying before Leontius, who was beaten to death after them.
The men, and what is known of them
Nothing whatever is transmitted of either man outside the Passion of St Leontius. Hypatius is given a rank — tribune (χιλίαρχος), the commander of a cohort — and Theodulus is one of the soldiers of his detachment, singled out in the narrative because of what he saw. Neither has a homeland, a family, a date of birth or a separate synaxarion notice; neither has ever been commemorated on a day of his own. They exist in the record entirely as the two men whom the persecution sent against a martyr and who changed sides.
The road to Tripoli
The senator Hadrian, commissioned to compel sacrifice in Phoenicia, heard of the Christian commander at Tripoli before reaching the city and sent Hypatius ahead with a detachment to take him. On the march Hypatius fell into a violent fever and could go no further. As he lay near death an angel stood over him in his sleep and told him that if he wished to be healed he must say, three times and with his men, God of Leontius, help me. He said it and was restored at once.
Theodulus is the tradition's witness to the miracle rather than its subject: he had seen a man given up for dead rise at the naming of a God whose worshipper he had been sent to arrest, and the Passion says that from that moment his heart was pierced. The detachment went on to Tripoli, found Leontius, and asked to be made Christians. He instructed them, and at their baptism — with neither font nor presbyter at hand — a cloud of light is said to have overshadowed them and poured out rain.
Martyrdom
Hadrian, arriving to find his own tribune among the accused, tried the three together and began with inducements: restoration of rank, money, the favour of the emperor. When these failed he turned to the instruments. Hypatius was hung and raked with the iron claws; Theodulus was beaten with rods. Neither would sacrifice, and both were taken out and beheaded — the metrical synaxarion notes only that they met the sword with an unwavering mind. Leontius, kept for a longer death, was hung with a stone about his neck and beaten until he died.
Feast and commemoration
June 18 (church date; Old Calendar civil July 1), universally, and always with Leontius: Λεοντίου καὶ τῶν σὺν αὐτῷ Ὑπατίου καὶ Θεοδούλου in the Greek books, Мучеников Леонтия, Ипатия и Феодула in the Slavonic. The service of the Menaion is Leontius' and the two are named in it; there is no proper office for them alone, and no calendar known to this corpus commemorates either man on any other day.
Hymns
Apolytikion — Tone 4
O ye who bore the sword of the emperor and were found bearing the cross of Christ, Hypatius and Theodulus, ye came to bind a martyr and were loosed by him; and being washed in the rain of heaven ye were made worthy of the crown. Entreat the merciful God to grant our souls forgiveness of sins.
Iconography
The two are almost never painted alone. They appear as the companions of Leontius: two soldier-martyrs, one of middle age and bearded (Hypatius, the senior officer) and one youthful (Theodulus), standing at either side of him in the martyr's cloak with the cross in the right hand, or in the scene of the passion, where the painter shows the double beheading in the foreground and Leontius hanging under the rods behind. In illustrated menologia for June 18 the three are shown as a group under the single legend of the day. No image of either martyr apart from Leontius is known to this entry, and none has been stored.
Disputed questions
- Dating. The Passion sets everything under Vespasian (69–79), and the liturgical books follow it; the historical difficulties with that reign are the same as for Leontius and are set out in his entry.
- Their separation from Leontius in this corpus. The three are one commemoration in every calendar and one text in the manuscripts. They are entered separately here because Leontius had a shrine, dedications and a cult of his own and these two never did — the distinction §4 draws between a company and a saint with independent veneration. The division is editorial, not liturgical: no calendar keeps them apart.
- Not to be confused with the other martyrs of these names: Hypatius, Bishop of Gangra (March 31), the confessor of Nicaea; Hypatius and Andrew of Ephesus (September 21), the iconodule martyrs; Agathopodes and Theodulus (April 5) of Thessalonica; and the Theodulus of Hesperus, Zoe, Cyriacus and Theodulus (May 2).