Porphyrius of Caesarea

The Holy Martyr Porphyrius

Martyr · d. c. 270

Porphyrius of Caesarea (†c. 270) is the "Holy Martyr Porphyrius" whom the Greek Menaion commemorates on November 4, martyred by the sword. In the received hagiographic tradition he is a second actor-martyr of the same name and story as the Porphyrius kept on September 15: a mime who, mocking the mystery of Baptism on stage, was seized by grace in the water, confessed Christ before the theatre, and was put to death — this one placed at Caesarea under the emperor Aurelian (270–275). Hagiographers have long suspected the two commemorations of being doublets of a single tradition; because the liturgical books keep two, this repository follows the books and records him under a distinguishing slug.

The printed Greek Menaion for November 4 gives only the bare notice, "the memory of the holy Martyr Porphyrius," with a couplet that turns on his name — Porphyrios, "the purple-clad" — and his death by the sword:

Porphyrius, well-arrayed by the sword, / clothed in a splendid purple robe of his own blood.

The notice transmits neither city nor emperor nor manner of life. The fuller narrative attached to this day in the Great Synaxaristes and the received accounts identifies him with the story told at greater length of the September 15 martyr: a mime of the pagan stage who, cast to burlesque Christian baptism before an audience, spoke the baptismal words over himself in the water and rose from it a Christian in earnest, dying for the confession he had meant to mock — here set at Caesarea in the persecution under Aurelian, some ninety years earlier than the Julianic date of the September saint.

Feast and commemoration

November 4 (church date; Old Calendar civil November 17), a synaxarion commemoration without proper hymns, kept in the Greek Menaion alongside Joannicius the Great and the hieromartyrs Nicander and Hermas.

Hymns

Troparion — Tone 4 (from the common of a martyr)

Thy Martyr, O Lord, Porphyrius, in his contest received an incorruptible crown from Thee our God; for possessing Thy strength he cast down the tyrants and broke the feeble insolence of the demons: at his intercessions save our souls.

Original translation from the Greek

Iconography

The Menologion of Basil II (c. 985) contains a November miniature (p. 159) for a Porphyrius — a beheading before a domed building — distinct from the September 15 miniature (p. 41) of the same manuscript. Because the identity of the November figure relative to the September actor-martyr is precisely the open question above, and because reproductions of the two miniatures circulate interchanged, no image is stored here to avoid prejudging the doublet; a the list of icons still being sought entry is owed. The September miniature is stored on the September 15 entry.

Disputed questions

A doublet of the September 15 Porphyrius? The two notices — September 15 (Porphyrius "of the mimes," under Julian, †361, placed at Ephesus in the Slavic tradition) and November 4 (this "holy Martyr Porphyrius," under Aurelian, placed at Caesarea) — recount an almost identical conversion in mid-performance and an identical death by the sword. Hagiographic scholarship has long held them to be variant commemorations of one tradition split across the calendar; the ancient Synaxarium of Constantinople already carries the name on both days. This repository does not resolve the question against the books: the Greek Menaion keeps a distinct service-notice and couplet for November 4, so a distinct entry is retained, with the doublet flagged in both files. See the reciprocal note in porphyrius-the-actor (September 15).
Place and date. "Caesarea" and the reign of Aurelian belong to the received accounts, not to the bare Greek Menaion notice, which names neither; both are recorded here as tradition. The century (3rd) follows the Aurelianic dating and is retained chiefly for indexing.
Jurisdictional witness. The November 4 Porphyrius is kept in the Greek Menaion. Neither the Orthodox Church in America's calendar nor the Moscow Patriarchate calendar (azbyka.ru) commemorates a Porphyrius on November 4 — both keep only the September 15 martyr — so the feast is recorded here as a Greek usage.
Not to be confused with Porphyrius the servant of the Apostle Onesiphorus (November 9) or with the bishop Porphyrius of Gaza (February 26).