Saint Charalambos or Haralambos () was an

early Christian Early Christianity, otherwise called the Early Church or Paleo-Christianity, describes the historical era of the Christian religion up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Christianity spread from the Levant, across the Roman Empire, and be ...

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

Magnesia on the Maeander Magnesia may refer to: Chemistry and geology *Magnesium oxide ** Periclase or magnesia, a natural mineral of magnesium oxide * Magnesian limestone (disambiguation) *Magnesium * Milk of magnesia, a suspension of magnesium hydroxide Geography * M ...

, a city in

Asia Minor Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

, in the

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

of the same name. His name means ''glowing with joy'' in

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

. He lived during the reign of

Septimius Severus Lucius Septimius Severus (; ; 11 April 145 – 4 February 211) was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna (present-day Al-Khums, Libya) in the Roman province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through cursus honorum, the ...

(193–211), when Lucian was

Proconsul A proconsul was an official of ancient Rome who acted on behalf of a Roman consul, consul. A proconsul was typically a former consul. The term is also used in recent history for officials with delegated authority. In the Roman Republic, military ...

of Magnesia. According to one source, at the time of his martyrdom in 202, Charalambos was 113 years old.

Life and martyrdom

Charalambos was Bishop of Magnesia and spread the

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

in that region for many years. However, when news of his preaching reached the authorities of the area, the proconsul Lucian and military commander Lucius, the saint was arrested and brought to trial, where he confessed his faith in Christ and refused to offer sacrifice to

idol Idol or Idols may refer to: Religion and philosophy * Cult image, a human-made object that is venerated or worshipped for the deity, spirit or daemon that it embodies or represents * Murti, a devotional image of a deity or saint used during puja ...

s. Despite his advanced age, he was tortured mercilessly. They lacerated his body with iron hooks, and scraped all the skin from his body. The saint had only one thing to say to his tormentors: "Thank you, my brethren, for scraping off the old body and renewing my soul for new and eternal life." According to the saint's

hagiography A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a preacher, priest, founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian ...

, upon witnessing Charalambos' endurance of these tortures, two soldiers, Porphyrius and Baptus, openly confessed their faith in Christ, for which they were immediately

beheaded Decapitation is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and all vertebrate animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood by way of severing through the jugular vein and common c ...

with a sword. Three women who were watching the sufferings of Charalambos also began to glorify Christ, and were martyred as well. The legend continues to say that Lucius, enraged, seized the instruments of torture and began to torture Charalambos himself, but suddenly his

forearm The forearm is the region of the upper limb between the elbow and the wrist. The term forearm is used in anatomy to distinguish it from the arm, a word which is used to describe the entire appendage of the upper limb, but which in anatomy, techn ...

s were cut off as if by a sword. The governor Lucian then spat in the face of the saint, and immediately Lucian's head was turned around so that he faced backwards. Apparently, Lucian and Lucius both prayed for mercy, and were healed by the saint, and became Christians. More tortures, the legend says, were wrought upon the saint after he was brought to

himself. Condemned to death and led to the place of execution, Charalambos prayed that God grant that the place where his relics would repose would never suffer famine or disease."Three Women Martyrs with St. Charalmpus in Thessaly", Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America
/ref> After praying this, the saint gave up his soul to God even before the

execution Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in ...

er had laid his sword to his neck. Tradition says that Severus' daughter Gallina"Septimius Severus had no children, so the chronology of this traditional telling of Charalambos' life is somewhat suspect": was so moved by his death, that she was converted and buried Charalambos herself.

Veneration

The

skull The skull, or cranium, is typically a bony enclosure around the brain of a vertebrate. In some fish, and amphibians, the skull is of cartilage. The skull is at the head end of the vertebrate. In the human, the skull comprises two prominent ...

of Saint Charalambos is kept at the Monastery of Saint Stephen at

Meteora The Meteora (; , ) is a rock formation in the regional unit of Trikala, in Thessaly, in northwestern Greece, hosting one of the most prominent complexes of Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox monastery, monasteries, viewed locally as se ...

. Many miracles are traditionally attributed to the fragments of his

relic In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains or personal effects of a saint or other person preserved for the purpose of veneration as a tangible memorial. Reli ...

s, which are to be found in many places in

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

and elsewhere. The miracles have made this saint, considered the most aged of all the martyrs, especially dear to the people of Greece. On some

Greek islands Greece has many islands, with estimates ranging from somewhere around 1,200 to 6,000, depending on the minimum size to take into account. The number of inhabited islands is variously cited as between 166 and 227. The largest Greek island by ...

, bulls are sacrificed on his feast day. "This festival is the most important popular activity of the village of

Agia Paraskevi Agia Paraskevi (, ''Agía Paraskeví'') is a suburb and a municipality in the northeastern part of the Athens agglomeration, Greece. It is part of the North Athens regional unit. Agia Paraskevi was named after the main church of the town, which ...

and it combines a variety of happenings that regard the ritual of the bull' s sacrifice. n agricultural grouprevived this ancient custom in 1774. It was established as a reverence to St Haralambos, the protector of heagricultural group that organises hefestival". The

feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context does n ...

of Saint Charalambos is normally commemorated on

February 10 Events Pre-1600 * 1258 – The Siege of Baghdad ends with the surrender of the last Abbasid caliph to Hulegu Khan, a prince of the Mongol Empire. * 1306 – In front of the high altar of Greyfriars Church in Dumfries, Robert the Bru ...

,"St. Charalambos Saints Day Celebrations in Luton, UK", ''Parikiaki'', 20 February 2019
/ref> the exception being when this date falls on the

Saturday of Souls Saturday of Souls (or Soul Saturday) is a day set aside for the commemoration of the dead within the liturgical year of the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches. Saturday is a traditional day of prayer for the dead, because Christ lay ...

preceding

Great Lent Great Lent, or the Great Fast (Greek language, Greek: Μεγάλη Τεσσαρακοστή, ''Megali Tessarakosti'' or Μεγάλη Νηστεία, ''Megali Nisteia'', meaning "Great 40 Days", and "Great Fast", respectively), is the most impor ...

or on

Clean Monday Clean Monday (, ''Kathara Deftera''), also known as Pure Monday, Green Monday or simply Monday of Lent is the first day of Great Lent throughout Eastern Christianity and is a moveable feast, falling on the sixth Monday before Palm Sunday whic ...

(the first day of Lent), in which case the feast is celebrated on 9 February. He is also revered in Comitán, Chiapas, México (in Spanish: ''San Caralampio'').

Iconography

In Greek

and

iconography Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...

, Charalambos is regarded as a priest, while

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n sources seem to regard him as a bishop.

Notes and references

External links

Feast of the Holy and Glorious Hieromartyr Haralambos
- Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America
Hieromartyr Charalampus, Bishop of Magnesia in Asia Minor
Orthodox

icon An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic Church, Catholic, and Lutheranism, Lutheran churches. The most common subjects include Jesus, Mary, mother of ...

and

synaxarion Synaxarion or Synexarion (plurals Synaxaria, Synexaria; , from συνάγειν, ''synagein'', "to bring together"; cf. etymology of '' synaxis'' and ''synagogue''; Latin: ''Synaxarium'', ''Synexarium''; ; Ge'ez: ሲናክሳሪየም(ስንክ� ...

St. Haralambos, The Right Reverend Father Michael D. Jordan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Charalambos 202 deaths Saints from Roman Anatolia Longevity claims 3rd-century Christian martyrs Year of birth unknown 3rd-century bishops in Roman Anatolia 89 births