The Great Martyr and Myrrh-Streaming
Saint Demetrios

Saint Demetrios, Courtesy of Holy Transfiguration Monastery Brookline, Massachusetts. 

This Icon depicts Saint Demetrios slaying the then Emperor Maximianus.
It actually symbolizes the spiritual triumph of the Saint as he would not succumb to the pagan ruler and renounce our Savior, Jesus Christ.  The spear is reminiscent of the weapon used by Roman soldiers that slayed the Holy Great Martyr Demetrios, Defender of the Holy Faith.

"A great champion hath the whole world found thee to be when in grave perils; for thou dodst put to flight the heathen, O victorious one.  As thou didst humble Lyaeus' arrogance and gavest boldness to Nestor in the stadium, thus, O Holy Great Martyr Demetrios, do thou entreat Christ God that we be granted great mercy ."
   - Apolytikion of St. Demetrios the Myrrh-flowing (Third Tone)
© 1984 Holy Transfiguration Monastery

Saint Demetrios is known in the Holy Orthodox Church as the "Myrrh-Streaming" (Myrovletes). Saint Demetrios of Thessalonike, Greece is one of the very few Saints from whose relics, by the grace of God, there has flowed a fragrant and healing myrrh. Among other great myrrh-bearers are St. Nicholas, St. Symeon of Serbia, and St. Nilus of Mt. Athos, whose relics, unlike St. Demetrios, are preserved to this day.

Demetrios was a native of the city of Thessalonike, the city founded by Alexander the Great, who named it for a sister very dear to him. In the tradition of the great thinkers of ancient Greece, Demetrios honed his keen oratorical power in the public forum, where the debates of the great minds of the day drew the spirited Christians as much as the gladiatorial games attracted the pagans. As the second leading city of the empire, Thessalonike had a reputation for providing the brightest intellectuals on the public platform and the most fearsome gladiators in the arena, strange bedfellows, indeed, and oddly enough, in both of which the power of Demetrios was to find expression.

Demetrios was in the military service as well as a devout Christian, but when it came to the attention of the Emperor Maximianus, who had come for an annual exhibition of gladiatorial prowess in the arena, this dual role met with royal displeasure. For his part in the Christian cause, Demetrios was stripped of his military rank and cast into prison to await an uncertain fate. It was at this point that the friendship of Nestor came to light. At great personal risk Nestor visited his friend regularly and sought to intercede in his behalf, a move which availed him little but the aroused suspicions of those who surrounded the emperor. This provided the setting for one of the finest displays of the power of God through the friendship of two gallant Christians.

It seems that one of the favorites of the emperor was a giant named Lyaeus, a seven-foot brute who destroyed every hapless gladiator he ever faced, and for whom the pagans sought an opponent who at least had the courage to walk up to Lyaeus and give a good account himself before succumbing to the inevitable.

It was during one of his visits that Nestor heard from Demetrios that the power of the Lord could be transmitted through him to any man and make him invincible against any foe in the arena. The youthful Nestor, with the spirit of the true believer welling within him, agreed to hurl a challenge at the best of the gladiators with a declaration that the power of God would, thanks to his friend Demetrios, prevail against all comers. Buoyed by the assurance of Demetrios, he stepped into the arena and shouted his defiance in the name of the Lord.

The pagan crowd, thinking this some practical joke, roared with laughter, but when Nestor strode to the royal box where Maximinus had looked on with amusement and heard the young man invoke the name of Demetrios and the awesome power of God, his smile turned to a snarl and the audience joined him in derision, whereupon the scowling Lyaeus was brought into the pit. The crowd settled back to witness the anticipated cat and mouse match, which the giant would conclude when it pleased him.  But they were brought to their feet in disbelief when the supposed victim withstood the withering attack of the undefeated gladiator, and, in due course, turned the tables and soundly defeated the greatest of the gladiators. Nestor scorned the thumbs down signal of the mob who now screamed for death, and the young Christian walked away from his prostrate foe.

Then Maximinus became beside himself with rage, and learning that Nestor was a Christian and that Saint Demetrios had blessed him, he ordered the soldiers to have them put to death.

The soldiers then went to the bath and lanced Saint Demetrios with their spears, and thus he received the eternal crown on the 26th of October, 296 A.D., at the age of thirty-six. It is written that when he saw the soldiers thrusting their spears at him, he raised high his arm and they lanced him in the side, so that he might be deemed worthy to receive the lancing which Christ received in His side, and there ran blood and water from the wound. Nestor was beheaded with his own sword the next day (holy Martyr Nestor of Thessalonica is commemorated in the holy Orthodox Church on the 27th of October) outside the wall at the place of the Golden Gate.

The holy Christians took the holy remains and buried them side by side, and from the grave of Saint Demetrios there came forth holy myrrh which cured many diseases. For this reason he is called Myrovletes. Over his holy grave and the place of his holy martyrdom there was built a church in the form of a basilica which stands to this day. In 1143 the Emperor Manuel Comnenos sent from Constantinople and brought the holy icon of the Saint that was at his tomb and had it placed in the Monastery of Pantocrator, whose church was build by the Comneni. Today it is called Zeirek.

Saint Demetrios revealed himself years later through this account: There lived once an ascetic on the Mount of Solomon who, hearing of the reports of the holy myrrh, had doubts, saying in his mind that there were many other great martyrs who suffered more than Saint Demetrios, yet they were not honored by God in such a manner. One night he saw, as if in a dream, that he was in the Church of St. Demetrios and he met the man who had the keys to the tomb of the Saint, and he asked him to open it that he might venerate it. When he was kissing the shrine, he observed that it was wet with fragrant myrrh, and he said to the keeper, "Come, help me dig that we might see from whence comes this holy myrrh." They dug, therefore, and came to a large marble slab which they removed with great difficulty, and immediately there appeared the body of the Saint, shining and fragrant, from which welled up abundant myrrh coming from the openings of his holy body made by the piercings of the lances. There flowed so much myrrh that both the keeper and the ascetic were drenched, and fearing that he would drown, the monk cried out, "Saint Demetrios, help!" Whereupon, he awoke from this vision and found himself drenched with the holy myrrh.

This Icon of St. Demetrios Myrrh - Streaming was hand painted by the nuns of Holy Nativity Convent in Brookline, Massachusetts.  Thanks to the generous contributions of our parishioners and friends, it now adorns the Icon Screen (Iconostasis) of our Church.