Callimachus of Melitene

Holy Martyr Callimachus of Melitene is commemorated on 20 November (new style) among the martyrs who suffered at Melitene with the Holy Martyr Hieron. The page says nothing about Callimachus in particular; it tells the suffering of Hieron and his companions.

Hieron was born at Tyana in Cappadocia, in the time of the emperors Diocletian and Maximian, of a devout mother, Stratonike. When the emperors learned that the people of Armenia and Cappadocia did not wish to worship idols, they sent two cruel officials, Agricolaus and Lysias, to kill the Christians and to take sturdy men into the army. Lysias heard of Hieron. The soldiers who came for him were beaten and put to flight, and Hieron withdrew with eighteen Christians into a cave, from which he defended himself. His friend Cyriacus urged him to come out peacefully. Hieron took leave of his mother, an old blind widow, and set out for Melitene with his kinsmen Victor, Matronianus and Anthony. On the way, one night, a man in white garments appeared to him, who announced that soon he would be with the heavenly King.

At Melitene he was shut in prison with thirty-⁠three other Christians, whom he urged not to worship idols but to offer God a sacrifice of praise. Brought to the judgment of Lysias, they confessed that they worshipped the Maker of heaven and earth. Hieron's hand was cut off to the elbow, and the others were beaten. His kinsman Victor was afraid, bribed an official and fled, but died soon. After five days Lysias judged them again, had them beaten with rods and condemned them to have their heads cut off. The martyrs went toward the place of execution singing the psalm "Blessed are the undefiled in the way" and prayed on their knees. A rich man, Chrysaphius, ransomed Hieron's head with gold and kept it with honour, and later built a church on the place where the heads were cut off. Hieron's hand was taken to his mother Stratonike, who wept over it and laid it in the place he had appointed.