Pancharius of Nicomedia
The Holy Martyr Pancharius at Nicomedia
Martyr · d. c. 302, at Nicomedia
Commemorated 19 March — Martyrdom at Nicomedia under Diocletian
Pancharius (†c. 302) was a Roman of noble birth and a courtier in high favour with the emperors Diocletian and Maximian, who — fearing the emperor's anger and seduced by the honours of the world — denied Christ in the persecution and returned to paganism. His mother and sister, hearing of his fall, wrote to him a letter that recalled him to himself, bidding him fear God and the dread Judgment to come and not lose his soul for the passing glory of the court. Cut to the heart, Pancharius repented, and went before the emperor to confess Christ openly. For this he was stripped of his rank, tortured, and at the last beheaded at Nicomedia, washing away his denial in his own blood. He is commemorated on March 19.
The account of Pancharius is a synaxarion notice, and this entry keeps to what it transmits. He was, it says, a man of Rome by origin and of noble family, who rose to honour in the service of the emperor Diocletian (284–305) and was held by him in especial affection. When the persecution of the Christians broke out and the profession of the faith became a capital matter, Pancharius — a Christian — was overcome by the fear of the emperor's displeasure and the love of his own standing, and denied Christ, going over to the worship of the idols.
His mother and his sister, devout Christians, learned of his apostasy with grief, and wrote to him. Their letter — the heart of the notice — reminded him of the faith in which he had been raised, warned him not to forfeit eternal life for the fleeting favour of princes, and set before him the fear of God and the terror of the Last Judgment. The words pierced him. Pancharius repented of his denial, and, resolved to undo it as publicly as he had made it, presented himself before the emperor and confessed himself a Christian.
Neither promises nor threats could move him a second time. He was deprived of his office and dignities, put to a succession of tortures, and — persevering in his confession — beheaded at Nicomedia, the eastern capital where Diocletian held his court, about the year 302. So the courtier who had fallen through fear rose again through repentance and received the martyr's crown.
Feast and commemoration
Pancharius is kept on March 19 (church date; Old Calendar civil April 1), his name standing in the Greek Menaion of the day among the martyrs commemorated with Chrysanthus and Daria, and likewise in the Slavic and American calendars. He has no proper service of his own; his memory is kept by the synaxarion reading, the common of a martyr serving where a hymn is required. Because March 19 falls within Great Lent, the full Liturgy is not served on the fast's weekdays, and no festal readings are proper to him then.
Hymns
Troparion — Tone 4
Your martyr, O Lord, in his contest received from you, our God, the crown of incorruption; for, armed with your strength, he cast down the tyrants and shattered the powerless insolence of the demons. By his supplications, O Christ our God, save our souls.
Original translation from the Greek
Iconography
Pancharius is depicted as a martyr in the courtly type appropriate to his rank — a young or middle-aged man in the tunic and cloak of a Roman official, bearing the martyr's cross — or in the narrative type of his beheading. No identity-verified public-domain icon proper to him has been secured, and none is stored here. (Wanted: a public-domain icon of the martyr Pancharius of Nicomedia.)