Saint Porphyrius
St. Porphyrius ... was a comedian, a mimic, a famous jester.
He was a prevailing voice of the remnant of paganism in the post-Constantine
Roman Empire, offering to those who hadn’t accepted Christianity a sufficient
mockery of its tenets...
His story begins best with the story of Julian the Apostate,
who, given the spoiler alert in his name, didn’t care for Christianity very
much. In the years following the death of Constantine the Great in 337AD, a
barrage of complicated politics had plagued the leadership of the vast Roman
Empire. Fast forward a couple of decades, and in 361AD one “Flavius Claudius
Julianus,” a nephew of Constantine, arose as sole emperor. His reign was to be
short (only 20 months), but not without activity.
Although Christianity for almost 50 years had enjoyed
political freedom and support from the emperor, the rule of Julian loomed as a
serious threat. Though he was a Christian for the first 20 years of his life,
he came to reject the Lord and choose instead the “way of Helios” (see his
Letter 47). Julian the Apostate envisioned a return to the Roman paganism of
old, a religious atmosphere marked by highly syncretistic polytheism, unified,
as it were, under the banner of being ‘not Christian.’
When Julian heard of the fame of Porphyrius the Mimic whose
specialty was mocking Christians, he had him brought in to entertain the royal
court. Everything was set up for a successful show. The audience was eager to
be entertained at Christianity’s expense, and Porphyrius had put together a
special play; he was going to mock the Mystery of Baptism.
The show was a riot, eliciting raucous laughter to be sure.
Things seemed to be lining up perfectly. The climax of the action involved a
mock-baptism scene with fake clergy dressed in liturgical garb immersing the
“catechumen,” Porphyrius, into some water.
He ceremoniously pronounced that he would now be a follower
of Jesus Christ, “in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit”
before being immersed. But something happened when Porphyrius entered the
water. Submerged in that moment, Porphyrius felt the summons of actual grace, a
call to serious conversion. Coming out of the water, he announced his decision
to all present that he wished to be a Christian and would no longer mock the
Living God. But, while he had his metanoia, the emperor was simply annoyed. The
Roman Martyrology sums up best what happened next:
“Forthwith, by order of the emperor, he was struck with an
axe, and thus crowned with martyrdom.”
Struck with the extraordinary work of divine grace, he
managed to get struck also by the work of human anger. Having given over his
heart to Jesus, he gave his head to the emperor. Thus is the story of the great
Martyr Porphyrius. Once a jester before secular courts, he was to become a
martyr in the heavenly courts.
As for Julian the Apostate, his hopes for a revival of
Roman paganism would not find widespread success. In 363AD, following Julian’s
military death, Emperor Jovian took the emperor’s throne and restored the faith
of the Roman Empire to Christianity.
[L]et us ... take the lesson to have sincere reverence for
the truth and all holy things even when it puts us in rather difficult
situations.
~Jacob Gruber
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