Saint Hypatius of Gangra
Dr Augustin Sokolovski
Gangra, or Germanicopolis, is now known as Çankırı. In ancient times, it was an important secular and ecclesiastical metropolis in the historical region of Paphlagonia in Asia Minor, approximately 140 km northeast of Ankara, the modern capital of Turkey. Just as the Pontic Comanae, whose historical location as the place of exile and death of St. John Chrysostom was contested by the Caucasian Comanae, the Abkhazian Gagra competed with the city of Gangra as the diocese of St. Hypatius, a rivalry reflected in the local culture-shaping traditions of the region.
Hagiography tells us that Hypatius participated in the First Ecumenical Council of 325 in Nicaea, where he supported Saint Athanasius and the Nicene Creed’s doctrine that the Son of God is consubstantial with God the Father. On his way back from the Council, Hypatius fell into an ambush set by Novatian schismatics, who killed him. The Novatian schism insisted that the validity of the sacraments depended on the personal qualities of the minister; the Novatians considered themselves blameless, a sort of community of saints. Hence the Greek name “Cathars,” literally “the Pure,” for this major schism of antiquity, a term subsequently adopted by various heretics, right up to the medieval Albigenses. We do not know for certain whether Hypatius’ murderers were indeed Novatians, or whether this identification was used in her hagiography for polemical purposes.
Before his participation in the Council of Nicaea, Hypatius had become renowned as a zealous missionary in his opposition to the pagans; therefore, it cannot be ruled out that it was they who carried out the attack on the saint. It is also possible that, unwilling to take the blame and fearing reprisals from the Roman imperial authorities, who had embarked on a path of supporting Christianity and eradicating paganism, the saint’s murderers simply shifted the blame onto the Novatians, especially since the latter, though they were schismatics, held the position of Orthodoxy regarding faith in the Son of God. According to the logic of the pagans—who did not delve into ecclesiastical disputes but had undoubtedly heard that the Orthodox glorified Christ as God—it followed that the Orthodox preached love yet killed one another.
In this last circumstance lies a striking similarity between the posthumous fate of the holy martyr Hypatius and that of the last Russian emperor, Nicholas II, who was shot in Yekaterinburg in the Ipatiev House, whose surname also derives from Saint Hypatius. Nicholas was shot by the Bolsheviks. For decades, the latter have tried to evade responsibility by portraying their opponents from the White Guard armies as the Tsar’s murderers. “I believe in the communion of saints,” states the Apostles’ Creed. There is a certain mysterious bond among the saints, both in life and after death.