Augustine Sokolovski
In the person of the martyr Lucian (240-312) we remember the saint whose memory was celebrated by the Fathers of the Church of ancient times. John Chrysostom dedicated a sermon to the martyr, and the Bible translator Saint Jerome wrote about him in his work “On Famous Men.” Eusebius of Caesarea mentioned him twice as an apologist and example of the martyrdom of the Christian faith in his “Church History.”
Saint Lucian was a native of the Antioch region, received priestly ordination around 270 and headed the famous theological school in that city. In 303, while in the then eastern capital of the Empire, Nicomedia, he witnessed the heroic martyrdom of Bishop Anthimus, which he reported to the brethren. On January 7, 312, in the same place, he himself was executed for Christ in the persecution of Emperor Maximin.
The name of Lucian became especially famous thanks to the Greek edition of the sacred texts of the Old and New Testaments prepared by him, which was widely used in the ancient Churches. The significance of this work is enormous. He was a very educated man and mastered many church disciplines.
It is known that many future hierarchs of the main eastern diocesis were his students. Some of them subsequently adhered to the Arian heresy, and therefore referred to Lucian as their teacher. Moreover, they preferred to be called not “Arians,” but “Lucianists.” In history, it often happened that those who were wrong referred to saints in order to attribute their merits and good name to themselves.
The Antiochian Church then stood at the head of the entire Orient. Jerusalem and Constantinople, which only later, in 451 at the IV Ecumenical Council in Chalcedon, which were subsequently separated from its canonical jurisdiction at the IV Ecumenical Council in Chalcedon and proclaimed “patriarchates” in 451, did not have any special ecclesiastical significance. Therefore, the authority of the Antiochian martyr teacher, which Julian was for many generations, was very great.
The life of Julian testifies that he was not only a theologian but was also honored from above with the grace to work miracles. After his death, the relics of the saint, under miraculous circumstances, were transferred to the shores of the Sea of Marmara to the ancient city of Drepana, historically known as the birthplace of St Helen (250–330), mother of Emperor Constantine. In 327 he renamed this city Helenopolis and erected a basilica dedicated to the saint. Just ten years later, in 337, Constantine himself was baptized on his deathbed at the tomb of the saint by Bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia. So amazing is the communion of saints!