Eikon

Leo and Paregorius

The Holy Martyrs Leo and Paregorius of Patara

Martyr · b. unknown — d. c. 260, at Patara in Lycia

Commemorated 18 February

Leo and Paregorius were two friends and fellow-Christians martyred at Patara in Lycia, most likely in the persecution under Valerian about the year 260. Paregorius suffered first, giving his life for Christ under torture. Leo, who had longed to share his friend's contest, was moved to zeal at a pagan festival: passing the shrine of the city's idols where lamps burned before the images, he cast them down and put them out. Seized and brought before the governor, he refused again and again to sacrifice, endured scourging and interrogation, and was condemned to be dragged over the rough ground to a torrent and there put to death, his body cast into a pit. He thus followed Paregorius to the crown. The two are commemorated together on February 18.

Paregorius, first to suffer

The martyrs belonged to Patara, a city of Lycia on the southern coast of Asia Minor — the same city that was the birthplace of Saint Nicholas of Myra's family and a seat of the old oracle of Apollo. Leo and Paregorius were bound in a close friendship and a common faith in the years of the pagan persecutions. When the trial came, Paregorius was taken first: confessing Christ and refusing to worship the idols, he was tortured and shed his blood for the faith at Patara, and so received the martyr's crown, leaving his friend behind.

Leo's zeal and martyrdom

Leo was left in a divided grief — rejoicing at his friend's victory, yet sorrowing that he had not been counted worthy to suffer with him. His own hour came at a pagan festival, when the city gave itself to the honour of its gods. Passing the Tychaeum — the shrine of Fortune (Tyche) — and seeing the lamps and torches burning before the idols, and Christians among the fearful crowd drawn along in the false worship, Leo was filled with holy zeal: he went in and threw down the burning lamps and extinguished them, treading the pagan offerings underfoot. He was at once seized and haled before the governor. There he confessed himself a Christian and, though pressed and threatened, refused utterly to sacrifice; he was scourged, his body torn, and interrogated in vain. The governor condemned him to a cruel death: he was dragged by the feet over the sharp and stony ground to a torrent (a dry riverbed or ravine), and there put to death, his body flung into a deep pit. Giving thanks to God, Leo yielded up his soul and joined Paregorius in the choir of the martyrs.

Date and sources

Their Passion (an early Greek martyrdom-account underlies the Latin and Greek notices) does not name the year with certainty. The oldest indications point to the persecution under the emperors Valerian and Gallienus, about 260, when the proconsul of Asia was pressing the Christians; some place the martyrdom a little later, in the Great Persecution under Diocletian. The third century is the likeliest setting, and Patara in Lycia the fixed place.

Feast and commemoration

Leo and Paregorius are kept together on February 18 (church date; Old Calendar civil March 3), the day given them in the Greek Menaion and the synaxaria; the Antiochian, Greek and Slavic calendars agree. They share the day with Leo the Great of Rome — a coincidence of name only, for the martyr Leo of Patara and the pope Leo of Rome are wholly distinct. Of the two martyrs, Paregorius is sometimes commemorated separately, as the one who suffered first.

Hymns

Troparion — Tone 4

Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received incorruptible crowns from thee our God; for possessed of thy might, they cast down the tyrants and shattered the powerless insolence of demons. By their supplications, O Christ our God, save our souls.

Original translation from the Greek

Kontakion — Tone 4

As a pair of friends united in Christ and in the martyr's contest, Paregorius who suffered first and Leo who followed after, ye cast down the idols and their lamps and were crowned with unfading glory; wherefore we honour your holy memory.

Original translation from the Greek

Iconography

Leo and Paregorius are depicted as a pair of youthful or middle-aged martyrs, in the lay dress of confessors — tunic and mantle — each bearing the martyr's cross. The narrative type illustrates the manner of Leo's death: the saint dragged over the ground toward the torrent, or the overthrowing of the burning lamps before the idols. No storable pre-modern image of the two has been identified; the entry is listed among those wanting an icon.

Sources

  1. The Passion of Saints Leo and Paregorius of Patara (Greek martyrdom-account, underlying the Latin and Greek synaxarion notices) — the martyrdom of Paregorius, Leo's zeal at the festival and the casting-down of the lamps, his scourging and dragging to the torrent, and his death.
  2. Synaxarion of Constantinople and Greek Menaion, February 18 — the joint commemoration of the martyrs Leon and Paregorios who suffered at Patara in Lycia.
  3. Pre-1930 hagiographic collections (Bollandist Acta Sanctorum; Baring-Gould, Lives of the Saints, February 18) — the dating to the persecution under Valerian and Gallienus (c. 260) and the details of Leo's passion; the year is given with the caution the record requires.