Sozon

Saint Sozon the Martyr, also called Sozon of Pompeiopolis or of Cilicia, was a shepherd from Lycaonia in Asia Minor who before baptism was called Tarasios. He confessed Christ at Pompeiopolis and died a martyr in the time of the persecutions, by some sources in 288, by others in 304. The Orthodox Church commemorates him on 7 September. Since the end of the nineteenth century he has been the patron of the island of Lemnos, where sailors honour him as a deliverer from the storm.

The shepherd and his calling

Sozon was born in Lycaonia and lived in Cilicia, working as a shepherd. According to the Greek tradition he was called Tarasios before baptism and received the name Sozon when baptized. He confessed the Christian faith and preached Christ among the other herdsmen, many of whom were convinced and received baptism.

One night, as he sat under an oak, he had a vision calling him to the struggle of martyrdom for Christ. Then he set out for Pompeiopolis in Cilicia. In the city celebrations were being held in honour of a pagan god, and the governor Maximian was offering sacrifice before a golden image of the god in a temple. In some Greek texts the statue is of the goddess Artemis.

Confession and martyrdom

Unnoticed, when there was no crowd in the temple, Sozon entered the shrine and broke the golden hand off the statue. He smashed it into pieces and gave the gold to the poor. The damage was noticed and arrests of suspects began. Not wishing the innocent to suffer, Sozon came himself to the governor and declared what he had done. Asked the purpose of his deed, he answered that the idol is not God but a helpless, soulless statue, which cannot help anyone, not even itself. He confessed that the true God is Jesus Christ.

The angry governor ordered him tortured. First they hung him on a tree and tore at his ribs with iron claws. Then they shod his feet in iron boots with sharp nails inside and led him through the city. Walking so, in pain, he glorified God. Then they hung him again on the tree and beat him with iron rods until his bones were crushed, and the martyr died. Seeing that he was dead, they took the body down from the tree and, at the governor's command, built a great pyre to burn it, since the governor did not want the body to become an object of veneration for Christians.

When the body was put in the fire, lightning flashed, thunder crashed and a strong rain with hail fell, so that the fire went out. Those standing by fled in fear and the body did not burn. According to the Life, at night the Christians wanted to take the martyr's body, but it was very dark. Suddenly, in the middle of the night, light shone from heaven, and the Christians were able to take it and bury it. At the martyr's tomb and at the spring that flowed beneath the oak where Sozon had received the revelation, the faithful received healings. Later a Christian church was built beside the oak. A shorter account says instead that he was burned alive.

Veneration in the Church

In the Orthodox Church his commemoration is on 7 September, the eve of the Nativity of the Mother of God. On this day the service in the September Menaion is composite: the stichera and troparia of the canon of the forefeast alternate with those of the martyr. The author of the canon is Theophanes. The oldest known image is a miniature in the Menologion of Basil II, of about 985, kept in the Vatican Library. The Greek name Σώζων became Sozont in Slavonic, from the genitive Σώζωντος, which stands at the start of the September Menaion and in the Typikon. The Roman Martyrology of 2004 also commemorates him on 7 September, as Sozon of Pompeiopolis, a ruined city near Taşköprü in present-⁠day Turkey.

Patron of Lemnos

In Byzantine times the patron of Lemnos was Saint Alexander, whose relics were kept there until 1308, when they were stolen by pirates and taken to Venice. His commemoration as patron of the island gradually faded. Hard years followed: pirate raids, quarrels between imperial families, French and Byzantine invasions, Venetian rule and, from 1479, Turkish rule. The island began to recover from poverty in the middle of the eighteenth century, when merchants and sailors from Lemnos came into contact with Europe, Russia and Egypt and began to rebuild the village chapels.

A small church long set on the southeast coast of Lemnos, near the village of Fisini, gave courage to sailors. It was the chapel of Saint Sozon. Lemnian sailors regarded him as a saviour, since, according to the story, he once saved shipwrecked men by turning his cloak into a boat. When they saw the lit lamps they made the sign of the cross and said a prayer to return safe to the island. In danger of storm they cried, "Saint Sozon, save us". The families of those who had gone abroad came to him with prayers and vows. So Saint Sozon became the protector of Lemnian seafaring, and each year on 7 September his festival was attended.

From the end of the nineteenth century he began to be honoured as patron of the island. In a list of 1887 of the official feasts of Lemnos his feast does not appear. The oldest written testimony is from 1906, when the Lemnian Brotherhood of Alexandria decided to hold the festival with vespers on the eve and the Liturgy and blessing of loaves on the day. So the date of his becoming patron lies between 1887 and 1906. Even today Lemnians in the diaspora, in Australia, Canada, the United States and South Africa, gather to keep the saint's day.

The chapel at Fisini

The chapel of Saint Sozon is mentioned on the southeast coast of Lemnos from the Middle Ages. On old travellers' maps it appears in the distorted form Cogito, from the spoken "ston Agiosozonta". The name is first noted by the Italian scholar Porcacchi in 1572, who writes that it has a wretched castle. It then appears in Piacenza, in Vincenzo Coronelli in 1680 to 1690, and in Choiseul-⁠Gouffier in 1785. The chapel therefore exists at least from the early sixteenth century. Earlier, in the same place there stood a small fortress, already ruined in 1572. The oldest things in today's church are a few nineteenth-⁠century icons. The cells were recently restored by the Stenos brothers.

According to local tradition the church was built at this place at the saint's own indication, in a miraculous way. In the area there had always been a holy spring, a well of sweet water at sea level. Near it a man from the neighbouring village of Fisini found an old icon of Saint Sozon. He took it to the village, but the next morning the icon was found again on the promontory, beside the spring. This was repeated several times, until the saint appeared to a pious shepherd and showed him the place where he wanted a church built and his icon placed.