Gigantius of Melitene

Holy Martyr Gigantius of Melitene is numbered in the calendar among those who suffered at Melitene together with Holy Martyr Hieron. The text we rely on tells the story of this Hieron and his companions, without giving facts about Gigantius himself; for that reason the account of the group is given below.

Hieron was born in the city of Tyana in Cappadocia, of a mother named Stratonike, in the time of Emperors Diocletian and Maximian, worshippers of idols and persecutors of Christians. The emperors sent two cruel men, Agricolaus and Lysias, to Armenia and Cappadocia to put to death the Christians who would not bow to idols and to enlist strong young men in the army. Lysias learned of Hieron, a strong and courageous man, and sent soldiers to take him. Hieron, who thought it improper for a Christian to serve beside idol-⁠worshippers, beat them and put them to flight. The soldiers came a second time, in greater number; Hieron withdrew with eighteen Christians into a cave and repulsed the attacks. A friend of his, Kyriakos, gently persuaded him to come out and go.

Hieron took leave of his mother, an old and blind widow, and set out for Melitene with relatives and believers. In the night someone dressed in white appeared to him, announcing that he was on the right path, to fight for the Heavenly King, and that soon he would receive honour and glory from Him. Hieron told his companions that there is only one true treasure, that in heaven, and that he entrusted his mother to Christ, the Father of orphans and widows.

At Melitene he was imprisoned with thirty-⁠three other Christians. He urged them not to bow to idols, but to offer God the sacrifice of praise. Before the judge Lysias, all confessed the faith, and Hieron admitted that he had beaten the soldiers sent for him. Lysias ordered his hand cut off up to the elbow, and had the others beaten. In prison a relative, Victor, bribed an official who kept the record of the martyrs to erase his name, and went out by night; soon he died, losing both his estate and his life and the martyr's crown. Hieron wept bitterly over him.

Hieron then made his will: his property in Pisidia to his sister Theotimia, that she might keep a memorial on the day of his death; the rest to his mother, to whom his severed hand was also to be given, to be laid in a house at Vadisana. On the fifth day the judge condemned them all to death by the sword, after beating them cruelly. Going to the place of execution, the martyrs sang the psalm Blessed are the undefiled in the way, and on arriving they knelt and said, Lord Jesus Christ, receive our souls. Then their heads were cut off.

Hieron's head was ransomed, for its weight in gold, by a wealthy man named Chrysaphius, who later built a church at the place where the martyrs were killed and laid the head in it. The relatives Antony and Matronian carried the hand to the saint's mother, Stratonike, who washed it with tears, kissed it and laid it in the place her son had indicated. The bodies of the martyrs were buried secretly by other Christians. They are commemorated on 20 November (new style), that is 7 November on the old style.