Claudianus of Melitene

Holy Martyr Claudianus of Melitene is mentioned in the account of the holy martyr Hieron and the other martyrs who suffered at Melitene in Lesser Armenia. The Azbyka page says nothing particular about Claudianus, naming him only in its heading; what follows there is the story of Hieron and his companions.

Hieron was born in the city of Tyana in the second Cappadocia, of his devout mother Stratonike, in the time of the emperors Diocletian and Maximian, worshippers of idols and persecutors of Christians. When the emperors learned that the people of Armenia and Cappadocia would not bow to idols, they sent two cruel men devoted to paganism, Agricolaus to Armenia and Lysias to Cappadocia, with the order to put to death the Christians who would not bow to idols and to enrol in the army all strong men and youths. In Cappadocia Lysias heard of Hieron, a sturdy man of exceptional courage, and sent soldiers to bring him. Hieron was working in the field. Learning that he was being taken for the army, he refused to go, thinking it harmful for a Christian to serve together with idolaters. When the soldiers wished to take him by force, Hieron seized a piece of wood and beat them, and was so strong that they fled.

The soldiers gathered again and came a second time in greater number. Hieron gathered eighteen Christians, hid with them in a nearby cave and from there drove off the attacks of the pagans. The commander sent one of Hieron's friends, named Kyriakos, who advised the soldiers to withdraw, for Hieron could be taken only by gentleness. Kyriakos went in to Hieron, calmed him and led him to his house, to his mother, an old blind widow, who wept for her son as the support of her old age and the light of her eyes. Hieron took his kinsman Victor and set out for Melitene, accompanied by his kinsmen Matronian and Anthony and other believers. At night a man in white garments appeared to him and told him that he was on the right way and would soon come to the Heavenly King. Filled with joy, Hieron told his companions that he knew the secret of God's favour toward him, that the only true treasures are those in heaven, and that only his mother's grief troubled him, whom he entrusted to the Father of orphans and widows.

At Melitene Hieron was imprisoned with thirty-⁠three other Christians. He told his companions not to yield, not to bow to idols, but to offer a sacrifice of praise to the true God. All answered that his words were sweet to them. The next day Lysias tried them. Someone pointed out Hieron as the one who had resisted the envoys, and Hieron courageously confessed that he had done it. Lysias ordered his hand cut off up to the elbow, and had the other saints beaten without mercy. Hieron's kinsman Victor, exhausted by the blows and afraid of more, bribed an official to strike his name from the list and was let out of the prison by night, but soon died, losing his property, his life and the crown of martyrdom. Hieron mourned him in grief.

Hieron left to his kinsmen Anthony and Matronian his last will: his property in Pisidia to his sister Theotimia, that she might keep his memorial on the day of his death, the rest to his mother, and the severed hand to be taken to his mother, who should ask Rusticus, the governor of Ancyra, for a house at Vadisana where the hand might be laid. On the fifth day Lysias tried once more with flattery and threats, then ordered them beaten with rods and condemned them to death by the sword. On the way, led by Hieron, the saints joyfully sang the psalm "Blessed are the blameless in the way"; at the place of execution they knelt, said "Lord Jesus Christ, receive our souls", and were beheaded. Lysias demanded the weight of Hieron's head in gold, and a rich man, Chrysaphius, paid it. Anthony and Matronian fled by night with the saint's hand to his mother Stratonike, who received it with tears and laid it where he had directed. Chrysaphius later built a church at the place where the martyrs were beheaded and laid Hieron's head in it.

Saint Claudianus is commemorated on 20 November, in the new style.