Philagrius of Cyprus
The Holy Hieromartyr Philagrius, Bishop of Cyprus
Hieromartyr · Bishop · Martyr · d. 1st century, in Cyprus
Commemorated 9 February — Bishop-martyr of Cyprus, disciple of the Apostle Peter; kept with the leavetaking of the Meeting
Philagrius (first century) is venerated as a bishop in Cyprus and a hieromartyr of the apostolic age — one of the disciples whom the Apostle Peter is said to have ordained and sent out to preach, with Pancratius, sent to Tauromenium in Sicily, and Marcellus, sent to Syracuse. Set over a church of Cyprus, he laboured to spread the faith among the pagans of the island and died a martyr for Christ. The Byzantine calendars keep his memory on February 9, together with his fellow-disciples of Peter and with the leavetaking of the Meeting of the Lord. The surviving record of him is a brief synaxarion notice, and the Church honours him with the common office of a hieromartyr.
Philagrius belongs to the apostolic mission of the West and the islands as the Byzantine synaxaria remember it — the band of disciples ordained by the Apostle Peter and dispersed to the coasts of the Mediterranean to found the earliest churches. To Philagrius fell Cyprus, the great island evangelised at the very outset of the Church's history (Acts 11:19; 13:4), where he was set as bishop and where he preached Christ among a population still largely given to the old gods. Of the particulars of his episcopate the tradition preserves almost nothing: only that he governed his Cypriot flock faithfully, contended against the idolatry around him, and at length gave his life for the faith, sealing his apostolate with martyrdom. He is numbered among the hieromartyrs, a bishop crowned with the death of Christ's witnesses.
His is a synaxarion saint: the honest record of him is a single line of commemoration, and his Life is short of necessity. What the calendar transmits and the Church keeps is the memory of a first-generation bishop of Cyprus, a disciple of Peter, and a martyr, honoured perpetually on the ninth of February with the two who were sent out beside him.
Feast and commemoration
Philagrius is commemorated on February 9 (church date; New Calendar civil February 9, Old Calendar civil February 22), kept with the leavetaking of the Meeting of the Lord and together with the other disciples of Peter honoured that day, Pancratius of Taormina and Marcellus of Sicily. As an apostolic-age figure his repose is placed in the first century. The proper service of the day belongs to the leavetaking of the feast; Philagrius receives synaxarion commemoration and the common office of a hieromartyr.
Hymns
Apolytikion — Tone 4
Sharing in the ways of the Apostles and succeeding to their throne, thou didst find in labours an ascent to divine vision, O God-inspired one; wherefore, rightly dividing the word of truth, thou didst contend for the faith even unto blood, O Hieromartyr Philagrius. Intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Iconography
Philagrius is depicted, where he is shown at all, as a bishop of the apostolic age — grey-bearded, vested in the omophorion, holding the Gospel-book, with the cross or palm of martyrdom. The stored image is the miniature of the Menologion of Basil II (Constantinople, 985) for the February commemoration, in which he stands with his fellow hieromartyrs Marcellus and Pancratius — three bishops of the apostolic preaching under the arches of an arcade, each with the Gospel-book — the company image proper to the day.