Papas of Lycaonia
The Holy Martyr Papas of Laranda in Lycaonia
Martyr · d. c. 305, at Diocaesarea in Isauria
Commemorated 16 March — Martyrdom, bound to a barren tree that bore fruit
Papas (†c. 305) was a martyr of Laranda in Lycaonia, in the interior of Asia Minor, who suffered in the Great Persecution under Maximian. Seized as a Christian and refusing to sacrifice to the idols, he was cruelly tortured — his feet, the tradition says, were shod with iron shoes driven through with nails, and he was made to run before his persecutors as they moved him from city to city, to Diocaesarea in Isauria. There, at the last, he was bound to a barren tree, which — at the death of the martyr — put forth leaves and bore fruit, a wonder that the tradition keeps as the sign of his crown. He is commemorated on March 16.
Papas belonged to Laranda, a city of Lycaonia in the uplands of central Asia Minor (the region about Iconium, on the borders of Isauria), and suffered in the persecution of the emperors at the opening of the fourth century — the synaxaria name Maximian and place his contest about the year 305, in the governorship of a magistrate whom the accounts call Magnus. Arrested as a Christian and brought to trial, he confessed the faith openly and would not sacrifice to the gods, and for this he was given over to a succession of savage torments.
The detail the tradition preserves above all is the torture of his feet: he was shod with shoes of iron pierced with sharp nails, and in these was driven on foot before his tormentors as they carried him from place to place — from Laranda through the cities of the region to Diocaesarea in Isauria — that the journey itself might be a prolonged martyrdom. Through it all he did not yield. At Diocaesarea he was at the last bound fast to a dry and barren tree and left to die. And here the synaxarion sets the wonder that seals his memory: as the martyr gave up his spirit, the withered tree grew green, put out leaves, and bore fruit — the dead wood quickened at the death of the saint, a sign that the Church has cherished as the token of a life that bore fruit in death. So Papas received the martyr's crown.
Beyond this the record is thin, as it is for so many of the martyrs whom the synaxarion preserves in a single notice; his city, his torments, and the miracle of the tree are what the tradition transmits.
Feast and commemoration
Papas is commemorated on March 16 (church date; Old Calendar civil March 29) in the Greek Menaion, the Slavic Menaion, and the OCA synaxarion. Because the day falls within Great Lent, his memory ordinarily lands on a weekday of the Fast, when the full Liturgy is not served and no fixed Epistle and Gospel are appointed; his office is joined to the Lenten order. He is to be distinguished from the martyr Papylus the deacon (kept October 13 with Carpus and Agathonike) and from the several other similarly-named saints of the calendar.
Hymns
Troparion — Tone 3 (common of a martyr)
Thy martyr Papas, O Lord, in his contest has received from thee our God the crown of incorruption; for having thy strength, he cast down the tyrants and shattered the impotent insolence of the demons. By his supplications, O Christ God, save our souls.
Original translation from the Greek
Iconography
Papas is depicted as a martyr — a man in the tunic and cloak, holding the small cross of the martyrs — and, where his passion is shown, either driven in the iron shoes or bound to the tree that flowered at his death, the narrative sign proper to him.
No public-domain, identity-verified pre-modern icon of Papas of Lycaonia was found for storage at the time of authoring; the saint wants an icon.