Nicander of Myra and Hermas
The Holy Hieromartyrs Nicander, Bishop of Myra, and Hermas the Presbyter
Hieromartyr · Bishop · Priest · Martyr · d. 1st century
Commemorated 4 November — Martyrdom; ordained by the Apostle Titus
Nicander, bishop of Myra in Lycia, and Hermas the presbyter were disciples of the Apostle Titus of the Seventy, who ordained them to the priesthood. Labouring as pastors and ascetics in first-century Lycia, they converted many pagans to Christ, for which they were seized and brought before the prefect Libanius. Neither flattery nor threat could move them, and they endured a succession of savage torments before being cast into a pit and buried alive. They are commemorated together on November 4 as hieromartyrs of the apostolic age.
The two saints belong to the first Christian generation of Lycia, the region of south-western Asia Minor later made famous by Nicholas of Myra. Both were disciples of the Apostle Titus (commemorated August 25), the companion of the Apostle Paul whom Paul had set over the Church of Crete; and it was Titus who ordained them — Nicander to the episcopate of Myra, Hermas to the presbyterate. Living an ascetic life amid unceasing pastoral labour, the two brought many of the pagans of the region to Christ.
Their success drew the hostility of the authorities. Arrested and brought before the city prefect Libanius, they were unmoved by either persuasion or menace, and would not renounce Christ. Libanius therefore gave them over to torture. The accounts describe sufferings of exceptional ferocity: the saints were bound to horses and dragged over stones, their bodies were torn with iron hooks, and they were cast into a heated furnace, in all of which — the tradition insists — the Lord upheld them beyond what natural strength could bear. At the last, iron nails were driven into their heads and into their hearts; then they were thrown into a pit and covered over with earth, so that they were buried while still alive. The Greek verses of the day fix this manner of death: "Two martyrs, longing for Christ while yet they lived, are buried living, bitterly, in the grave."
Beyond the fact of their discipleship under Titus and the circumstances of their martyrdom, no detailed biography survives; they are known from the synaxarion notice and the hymns appointed for their day.
Feast and commemoration
November 4 (church date; Old Calendar civil November 17), kept universally in the Byzantine rite together with the memory of Joannicius the Great. The Greek Menaion appoints proper stichera and a canon for the two hieromartyrs; the Slavonic and OCA calendars keep the same commemoration.
Hymns
Troparion — Tone 4 (from the common of a martyr)
Thy Martyrs, O Lord, in their courageous contest received incorruptible crowns from Thee our God; for possessing Thy strength, they cast down the tyrants and broke the feeble insolence of the demons. By their intercessions, O Christ God, save our souls.
Original translation from the Greek
Iconography
The two are depicted as a bishop and a priest of the early Church: Nicander vested as a hierarch, with the omophorion and often a Gospel book, his beard dark and rounded; Hermas beside him in priestly vesture. Where the manner of their death is shown, it is the burial in the pit. No pre-modern image of the pair has been identified and verified for storage; a the list of icons still being sought entry is owed.
Disputed questions
- Not to be confused with Nicander of Egypt, the layman-physician martyred under Diocletian for burying the bodies of the martyrs, whom the calendars keep on March 15 — a different saint of a different age and country. This Nicander is the first-century bishop of Myra in Lycia, martyred with Hermas the presbyter; the shared name is their only point of contact.