Megalomartyr Saints
JOHN A. MCGUCKIN
Megalomartyr is a term that derives from the Greek for “Great Martyrs” (megalomartyroi) and designates a special category of Orthodox saints (also widely venerated in the Western Catholic calendar because their festivals were established so early in Christian history) and refers chiefly to the leading martyr saints of the Age of the Persecutions, before the 4th-century Edict of Milan, when the Emperor St. Constantine I gave peace to the church. It encompasses a range of men and women saints, several soldiers among them, who were not only held up as having given an exemplary witness (suffering great tortures with noble courage), but who also enjoyed a lively and widespread cult in the ancient church (“great,” that is, in terms of their renown). Among the most popular of the male Megalomartyrs were the soldier saints George, Dimitrios, Theodore the General, and Theodore the Recruit, as well as Sts. Phanourios and Procopios. Among the most revered women great martyrs were Catherine of Alexandria, Barbara, Euphemia, Paraskeva, and Irene. Some of their number, such as Panteleimon, Orestes, Diodore, and Tryphon, are also called Unmercenary Healers (Greek: Anargyroi) as well as Megalomartyrs. Several of them are commemorated specifically by name in the preparatory (Prothesis) ritual of the divine liturgy, when particles of bread are set aside to commemorate them among the “Nine Ranks of Saints,” and their prayers are asked for as the church gathers for the synaxis.
SEE ALSO: Military Saints; New Martyrs; Proskomedie (Prothesis); Unmercenary Saints
REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS
Farmer, D. H. (1978) The Oxford Dictionary of Saints. Oxford: Clarendon Press.