Themistocles of Myra
The Holy Martyr Themistocles of Myra in Lycia
Martyr · d. 251
Commemorated 21 December — Martyrdom at Myra in Lycia
Themistocles (†251) was a shepherd of Myra in Lycia who gave his life to save another. During the persecution of the emperor Decius he sheltered in his house a hunted Christian named Dioscorides; when the pursuers came, Themistocles went out to them, took upon himself the danger meant for the man he had hidden, and confessed Christ in his stead. He was cruelly tortured and received the crown of martyrdom in the year 251. He is commemorated on December 21.
Themistocles lived at Myra, the Lycian city on the southern coast of Asia Minor later famous as the see of Saint Nicholas, and followed the humble calling of a shepherd. His martyrdom fell in the reign of Decius (249–251), whose edict of universal sacrifice set off one of the first empire-wide persecutions of the Christians.
When the persecutors were searching for a Christian named Dioscorides, Themistocles concealed the fugitive in his own home and then went out to meet the pursuers himself. Questioned, he refused to give up the man he was sheltering and instead confessed that he too was a Christian, offering his own life in place of the one they sought. For this the tradition remembers him among the martyrs whose crown was won as much by charity as by confession. He was subjected to fierce torments — the synaxaria speak of his being scourged, torn, and dragged over sharp ground — and died under torture about the year 251, receiving, as the service says, the unfading crown from Christ.
Feast and commemoration
Themistocles is commemorated on December 21 (church date; Old Calendar civil January 3), within the forefeast of the Nativity, together with the virgin-martyr Juliana of Nicomedia. He is a saint of the Greek synaxaria kept also in the Slavic and OCA calendars; no proper service is appointed to him, and where he is sung the common of a single martyr is used.
Hymns
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy martyr Themistocles, O Lord, in his contest received the crown of incorruption from Thee our God; for possessed of Thy might, he cast down the tormentors and shattered the feeble boldness of the demons. By his intercessions save our souls.
Original translation from the Greek
Iconography
Themistocles is shown as a young or middle-aged martyr, beardless or lightly bearded, in the plain tunic and mantle of a layman rather than the dress of rank, holding the martyr's cross; his pastoral calling is sometimes marked by a shepherd's crook or by sheep. The stored image is the miniature under December 21 from the Menologion of Basil II (Constantinople, c. 985; Vatican Library), which depicts his martyrdom.