Remembrance of the Miracle of Saint Euphemia the All-Praiseworthy
Commemorated on July 11
The holy GreatMartyress
Euphemia (the account about her is located under 16 September) suffered
martyrdom in the city of Chalcedon in the year 304, during the time of the
persecution against Christians by the emperor Diocletian (284-305). One and an
half centuries later, – at a time when the Christian Church had become
victorious within the Roman empire, God deigned that Euphemia the
All-Praiseworthy should again be an especial witness and confessor of the
purity of the Orthodox teaching.
In the year 451 in
the city of Chalcedon, in the very church wherein rested the glorified relics
of the holy GreatMartyress Euphemia – there took place the sessions of the
Fourth OEcumenical Council (the account about it is under 16 July). The Council
was convened for determining the precise dogmatic formulae of the Orthodox
Church concerning the nature-composition of the God-Man Jesus Christ. This had
been necessitated because of the widely-dispersed heresy of the Monophysites
["mono-phusis" meaning "one nature"], who opposed the
Orthodox teaching about the two natures in Jesus Christ – the Divine and the
Human natures [but in one Divine Person as Son of God within the Holy Trinity
of three Divine Persons]. The Monophysites falsely affirmed that within Christ
was only one nature – the Divine [i.e. that Jesus is God but not man,
by nature], causing discord and unrest within the Church. At the Council
were present 630 representatives from all the Local Christian Churches. On the
side of the Orthodox in the conciliar deliberations there participated Sainted
Anatolios, Patriarch of Constantinople (Comm. 3 July), Sainted Juvenalios,
Patriarch of Jerusalem (Comm. 2 July), and representatives of Sainted Leo, Pope
of Rome (Comm. 18 February). The Monophysites were present in large numbers,
headed by Dioscoros, the Alexandrian patriarch, and the Constantinople
archimandrite Eutykhios.
After prolonged
discussions the two sides could not come to a decisive agreement.
The holy Patriarch of
Constantinople Anatolios thereupon proposed that the Council submit the
decision of the Church dispute to the Holy Spirit, through His undoubted bearer
Saint Euphemia the All-Praiseworthy, whose wonderworking relics had been
discovered during the Council's discussions. The Orthodox hierarchs and their
opponents wrote down their confessions of faith on separate scrolls and sealed
them with their seals. They opened the tomb of the holy GreatMartyress Euphemia
and placed both scrolls upon her bosom. Then, in the presence of the emperor
Marcian (450-457), the participants of the Council sealed the tomb, putting on
it the imperial seal and setting a guard to watch over it for three days.
During these days both sides imposed upon themselves strict fast and made
intense prayer. After three days the patriarch and the emperor in the presence
of the Council opened the tomb with its relics: the scroll with the Orthodox
confession was held by Saint Euphemia in her right hand, and the scroll of the
heretics lay at her feet. Saint Euphemia, as though alive, raised her hand and
gave the scroll to the patriarch. After this miracle many of the hesitant
accepted the Orthodox confession, while those remaining obstinant in the heresy
were consigned to the Council's condemnation and excommunication.
After an invasion by
the Persians during the VII Century, the relics of Saint Euphemia were
transferred from Chalcedon to Constantinople, into a newly built church
dedicated in her name. Many years later, during the period of the Iconoclast
heresy, the reliquary with the relics of the saint was cast into the sea – by
order of the Iconoclast emperor Leo the Isaurian (716-741). The reliquary was
rescued from the sea by the ship-owning brothers Sergios and Sergonos, who gave
it over to the local bishop. The holy bishop ordered that the relics be
preserved in secret, beneathe a crypt, since the Iconoclast heresy was
continuing to rage. A small church was built over the relics, and over the
reliquary was put a board with an inscription stating whose relics rested
therein. When the Iconoclast heresy was finally condemned at the holy Seventh
OEcumenical Council (in the year 787), – during the time of Sainted Tarasios,
Patriarch of Constantinople (784-806) and the emperor Constantine VI (780-797)
and his mother Saint Irene (797-802), – the relics of the holy GreatMartyress
Euphemia were once again solemnly transferred to Constantinople.
© 1996-2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos.
