"Glittering with the Indescribable Brightness of the Sun" ~ Saint Polyeuctus and his magnificent temple in Byzantium

The execution of St. Polyeuctus of Melitene, taken from the Menologion
of Basil II, ca. AD 1000.

February 13 is the feast day of yet another victim of the persecution of Decius, Saint Polyeuctus of Melitene in Roman Armenia. Though practically unknown today, Polyeuctus was renowned in antiquity as a soldier-martyr. An epitome of his acts was recorded by Symeon Metaphrastes in the 10th century, though it is likely that Symeon was working from a much older tradition. Indeed, Polyeuctus was revered in antiquity from at least the time of the Empress Eudocia (mid 5th century AD) who built a shrine dedicated to him in Constantinople.

Here is an English translation of Metaphrastes’s acts of Saint Polyeuctos taken from The Lives of the Saints by Sabine Baring-Gould (1878) who claims that they are based on the original by Nearchus “who took his body to burial after his death”:

Whilst the Christians, especially those in the East, were suffering persecution under the Emperors Decius and Valerian, there were two men very friendly, Polyeuctus and Nearchus by name. Now Nearchus was a Christian, but Polyeuctus was a heathen. But when Decius and Valerian could not be satiated with the blood of the saints, they issued an edict that those Christians who would sacrifice to the gods, should be favored by the majesty of the empire, but that those who refused should be cruelly punished. Which things being heard, Nearchus, who desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ, lamented because his comrade, whom he loved as a second self, would be left in peril of eternal damnation.

Going therefore to his friend, Polyeuctus, he announced to him that on the morrow their friendship must come to an end. And when he answered that death alone could terminate this, Nearchus said, "You speak the truth, we are about to be separated by death." And he showed him the imperial edict. Then Polyeuctus narrated to Nearchus how Christ had appeared to him in vision, and had taken off his dirty vestment, together with his military harness, and had thrown over him a gorgeous silk robe, linking it at his shoulder with a golden brooch, and had mounted him on a winged horse. Hearing this, Nearchus was glad, and having expounded the vision, and instructed Polyeuctus more fully in the faith, his friend believed perfectly, and began to thirst for martyrdom.

Now when Polyeuctus declared himself openly to be a Christian, and rebuked idolatry, being tried by the persecutors, he was for a long time tortured. And when he had been a long while scourged with rods, the tormentors were weary, and endeavored to persuade him with bland speeches and promises, to return to the worship of the gods. But he, remaining immovable in the confession of the Lord, and deriding them, was more furiously beaten.

Then came his wife and only son, and she filled the place with her cries, and held out to him his son, alleging his marriage ties, with many tears and sighs, and labored to call the saint from martyrdom, by the thoughts of his son, of his wealth, and of his friends. But he, divinely inspired, could not be separated from Christ by any temptations, but all the more exhorted his wife to desert her idols and believe in Christ.

Now when the governors saw that the constancy of the martyr was not to be shaken, they pronounced capital sentence against him. And when the martyr heard this, he gave thanks, and praising God, was led to the place of execution, confirming the faithful with his holy exhortations, so that not a few of the unbelievers were converted. Then, turning to the Blessed Nearchus, he announced to him that he should follow him according to mutual agreement; and bidding him farewell, died a glorious death.

As mentioned above, the Empress Eudocia built a shrine to Polyeuctus in Constantinople. This would be eclipsed a few decades later by a truly monumental church raised in Constantinople to Saint Polyeuctus by the wealthy noblewoman Anicia Juliana during the 520s AD. Indeed, at the time of its completion, the great Church of Saint Polyeuctos would be the largest and most magnificent ecclesiastical edifice in the city—and possibly the world. An epigram exists celebrating the works of Anicia, a descendant of Constantine and Theodosius, which describes the interior of this church. Here is an excerpt from the epigram rendered into English by Mary Whitby:

Miniature of Anicia Juliana flanked
by personifications of Wisdom and
Magnanimity from a copy of De
Materia Medica dedicated to her
in the early 6th century, AD.

What choir is sufficient to sing the contests of Juliana who, after Constantine, embellisher of his Rome, after the holy all-golden light of Theodosius, and after royal descent from so many forebears, accomplished a work worthy of her family, and more than worthy in a few years? She alone has overpowered time and surpassed the wisdom of the celebrated Solomon, raising a temple to receive God, the richly wrought and gracious splendor of which a great epoch cannot celebrate.

How it stands forth on deep-rooted foundations, springing up from below and pursuing the stars of heaven, and how too it extends from the west, stretching to the east, glittering with the indescribable brightness of the sun on this side and on that! On either side of the central nave, columns standing upon sturdy columns support the rays of the golden-roofed covering. On both sides recesses hollowed out in arches have given birth to the ever-revolving light of the moon. The walls, opposite each other in measureless paths, have put on marvelous meadows of marble, which nature caused to flower in the very depths of the rock, concealing their brightness and guarding Juliana’s gift for the halls of God, so that she might accomplish divine works, laboring at these things in the immaculate promptings of her heart. What singer of wisdom, moving swiftly on the breath of the west wind and trusting in a hundred eyes, will pinpoint on each side the manifold counsels of art, seeing the shining house, one ambulatory upon another?

The epigram, which was apparently inscribed in stone upon the walls of the church, also describes glorious images from the life of Constantine, perhaps rendered in mosaic upon the interior of the dome:

Thence, it is possible to see above the rim of the hall a great marvel of sacred depiction, the wise Constantine, how escaping the idols he overcame the God-fighting fury, and found the light of the Trinity by purifying his limbs in water. [Taken from Whitby: The Saint Polyeuktos Epigram: A Literary Perspective]

Foundations of the Church of St. Polyeuctus in Istanbul.
Photo credit: Jeremy Thomas.

It is said that the low-born emperor Justinian viewed Juliana as a rival and her great church as a direct challenge to him. In the 6th century work entitled The Glory of the Martyrs by Gregory of Tours, an anecdote is related in which Justinian demanded that Juliana remit a portion of her wealth to the imperial treasury. In response, Juliana did the following:

Julinana gathered some craftsmen and secretly gave them whatever gold she could find in her storerooms. She said: “Go, construct plates to fit the measure of the beams, and decorate the ceiling [of the church] of the blessed martyr Polyeuctus with this gold, so that the hand of the greedy emperor cannot touch these things.”

When Justinian came to collect the wealth of Juliana, she invited him to pray with her in the great church of Saint Polyeuctus which was next to her home. Upon entering, she said:

“Most glorious Augustus, I ask you to look at the ceiling of this church and realize that my poorness is kept there in this craftsmanship. But you now do what you wish. I will not oppose you.”

Justinian, realizing he was defeated, left the church and accepted from Juliana only a gold ring set with an emerald as a token of the wealth he had hoped to receive into the imperial fisc.

The so-called Pillars of Acre at Saint Mark's Cathedral,
Venice, now known to have come from St. Polyeuctus.

The above excerpts were taken from Gregory of Tours Glory of the Martyrs, translated with an introduction by Raymond van Dam. The entire story of the above incident is well worth reading.

It is speculated that Justinian built his gigantic new Hagia Sophia, completed in AD 537, specifically to outshine Juliana's Church of St. Polyeuctus.

The Church of St. Polyeuctus seems to have survived into the 11th century when it fell to ruin. Pieces of it were recycled and used for other buildings--some even finding their way to Venice in the aftermath of the 4th Crusade. Whatever remained was leveled by the time of the Ottoman conquest, to be rediscovered by archaeological excavations in the 1960s.

As a final note, there have been some recent interpolations of lives of Saints Polyeuctos and Nearchus which attempt to reinvent them as homosexual lovers, despite the clear mention of Polyeuctos’s wife and child in the acts. Let it suffice to say that such attempts have no basis in fact and are largely the product of modern fantasy which can not comprehend strong male friendships without a sexual overlay. Such interpolations may be safely ignored.