Hierarch
Priest-Martyr Antipas, Bishop of Pergamon in Asia
April 11 Old CalendarApril 24 New Calendar
Life
He is mentioned in the Book of Revelation as Antipas my faithful witness (2:13), who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth, that is, in the city of Pergamon. The inhabitants of this city lived in the darkness of idol-worship and in extreme impurity; they were slaves to passion, slanderers, men of violence, those guilty of blood-mixture — in a word, servants of Satan. And there in the midst of them Antipas dwelt "as light in the midst of darkness, as a rose in the midst of thorns, as gold in the midst of mire." He was considered good and righteous who might seize and kill a Christian. The entire pagan faith consisted in soothsaying, in the interpretation of dreams, in the service of demons, and in extreme debauchery. Terrified of Antipas as of fire, the demons appeared to the priests in a dream and confessed how they feared Antipas and how they were compelled on his account to flee from that city. The priests stirred up a crowd of people against Antipas and began to torture him and drive him to renounce Christ and bow down to idols. Antipas said to them: "When your so-called gods, the lords of the universe, are afraid of me, a mortal man, and are compelled to flee from this city — do you not recognize from this that your entire faith is delusion?" And the saint spoke to them further of the Christian Faith as the one true and saving Faith. But they raged like wild beasts and dragged the elder Antipas before the temple of Artemis, before which stood a bronze bull that had been cast. They heated the bull with fire and cast the servant of God inside. Saint Antipas, within the fiery bull, glorified God with thanksgiving, as once Jonah in the whale or the three youths in the fiery furnace. And Antipas prayed for his flock and for all the world until his soul was parted from his frail body and soared among the angels into the Kingdom of Christ. He expired in torment and was crowned with unfading glory in the year 92.
Antipas said to them: "When your so-called gods, the lords of the universe, are afraid of me, a mortal man, and are compelled to flee from this city — do you not recognize from this that your entire faith is delusion?" And the saint spoke to them further of the Christian Faith as the one true and saving Faith.
From the Hymn of Praise
### IN THE FIERY BULL AS IN A BRIGHT TEMPLE
From the Prologue from Ochrid by St. Nikolai Velimirovich, April 11. Translated by Marcian Sakarya, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Also commemorated on April 11
The full reading for April 11 includes the hymn of praise, a reflection, a contemplation and a homily.
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