Eikon

Publius of Athens

The Holy Hieromartyr Publius, Bishop of Athens

Hieromartyr · Bishop · d. 2nd century, at Athens

Commemorated 13 March — Martyrdom as Bishop of Athens

Publius (second century) was Bishop of Athens and a hieromartyr — the shepherd of the Athenian church who was put to death for the confession of Christ, and after whose martyrdom the flock he left, scattered and dispirited, was gathered again by his successor Quadratus. His memory is preserved by the earliest historians of the Church: Dionysius of Corinth, writing about the year 170, records in a letter that the Christians of Athens had all but fallen away after "the martyrdom of Publius their leader," until Quadratus, made bishop in his place, rekindled their faith; and Eusebius hands the notice down. The later synaxaria honour him as a successor of Dionysius the Areopagite on the throne of Athens and number him among the disciples of the apostolic age. He is commemorated on March 13.

Of Publius almost nothing survives beyond the fact of his office and his martyrdom, but that little rests on unusually early testimony. In a letter to the church of Athens written about 170, Dionysius, bishop of Corinth, remembered how the Athenian Christians had "revolted from the word" and nearly abandoned the faith after their bishop Publius had suffered martyrdom in the persecution of the day; and how Quadratus, appointed bishop after him, "gathered them together again" and rekindled their faith and zeal. Eusebius of Caesarea preserves this notice in his Ecclesiastical History (IV.23), and it is the bedrock of what is known: Publius was a bishop of Athens of the second century, martyred — most probably in the reign of Marcus Aurelius (161–180) — and succeeded by Quadratus, the celebrated apologist.

The tradition of the Byzantine synaxaria adds to this frame. It sets Publius in the line of the bishops of Athens descending from Dionysius the Areopagite, the disciple of the Apostle Paul and first bishop of the city, and honours Publius as a shepherd of apostolic temper who governed his church in faith and confessed Christ to the end, sealing his episcopate with his blood. Where the early record is silent on the manner of his death, the synaxaria remember him simply as a hieromartyr — a bishop crowned in martyrdom — and the Church keeps his memory on March 13.

Feast and commemoration

Publius is commemorated on March 13 (church date; Old Calendar civil March 26) as a hieromartyr, bishop of Athens. The Greek, Slavic, and Antiochian calendars keep him on this day, on which the Church also keeps the martyrs Africanus and his companions and the martyr Sabinus of Egypt. Because March 13 falls within the Great Fast, its commemoration is generally kept on a weekday of Lent, when the full Liturgy is not served and no fixed Epistle and Gospel are appointed; the saint's office is joined to the Lenten order.

Hymns

Troparion — Tone 4

As one who shared in the ways of the Apostles and succeeded to their thrones, thou didst find in thy labours, O God-inspired one, an ascent to divine vision; wherefore, rightly dividing the word of truth, thou didst contend for the faith even unto blood, O Hieromartyr Publius. Intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.

Original translation from the Greek

Iconography

Publius is depicted in the type of the early hierarch: a bishop vested in the phelonion and omophorion, holding the Gospel-book and blessing, of middle years and dark or greying beard, sometimes bearing the martyr's cross to mark his crowning in blood. No securely identified early portrait icon of him has been found for storage here; the saint wants an icon.

Disputed questions

  • "One of the Seventy," and the succession at Athens. The Byzantine synaxaria, and following them the OCA, style Publius one of the Seventy Apostles and set him directly after Dionysius the Areopagite (some notices insert a bishop Narcissus between them). This apostolic dating cannot be reconciled with the one firm witness: the letter of Dionysius of Corinth (c. 170), reported by Eusebius, places the martyrdom of Publius and the episcopate of his successor Quadratus in the second century, more than a hundred years after the Seventy. The entry follows the Eusebian evidence — a mid-second-century bishop-martyr of Athens — and records the "Seventy" attribution as a later synaxarion honour rather than a datum of history; the precise order of the earliest Athenian bishops (Dionysius, Narcissus, Publius, Quadratus) is itself imperfectly transmitted.
  • Not to be confused with the ascetic Publius of Zeugma (kept January 25), the fourth-century Syrian monastic founder of the two bilingual houses on the Euphrates — a different saint of a different office and age; nor, on this same day, with the martyr Publius (also called Pompeius) numbered among Africanus, Pompeius and Terence of Africa. This Publius is the bishop of Athens.

Sources

  1. Eusebius of Caesarea, Ecclesiastical History IV.23 — quoting the letter of Dionysius of Corinth to the Athenians: the martyrdom of Publius, bishop of Athens, and the gathering-again of the flock by his successor Quadratus. The one ancient witness, and the foundation of the entry.
  2. Synaxarion of Constantinople and the Greek Menaion, March 13 — the synaxarion notice honouring Publius as bishop of Athens and hieromartyr, and the "Seventy" and Areopagite traditions discussed under Disputed questions.
  3. Orthodox Church in America, Lives of the Saints, March 13 (consulted live) — the notice of Publius, bishop of Athens after Narcissus, styled one of the Seventy.