Hilarion of Melitene

Holy Martyr Hilarion of Melitene is named in the calendar among those who suffered at Melitene with Holy Martyr Hieron. The text we rely on tells the story of Hieron and his companions and says nothing in particular about Hilarion; therefore we give the story of the group briefly.

Hieron, born in Tyana in Cappadocia, resisted the soldiers sent by the official Lysias to enlist him in the army in the time of Diocletian and Maximian. Driving them off, he then hid with eighteen Christians in a cave, but his friend Kyriakos gently urged him to come out and led him home to his mother, an old blind widow. Setting out for Melitene, he spoke to his companions of the one true treasure, that in heaven, and at night a man in white garments appeared to him, announcing that he was on the right path.

At Melitene he was imprisoned with thirty-⁠three other Christians. He told them they must not submit, but offer God the sacrifice of praise. Before Lysias all confessed that they worshipped the Maker of heaven and earth. Hieron's hand was cut off, and his kinsman Victor left the prison by a bribe and soon died. Hieron then left his will: his property to his sister and mother, and the severed hand to his mother. On the fifth day all were beaten with rods and condemned to death by the sword; they went to execution singing the psalm Blessed are the undefiled in the way. After the beheading, a wealthy Christian, Chrysaphius, ransomed Hieron's head for its weight in gold and later built a church at the place of martyrdom; the kinsmen Antony and Matronian carried the hand to the saint's mother. The saints are commemorated on 20 November (new style).