The Holy Apostle Hermes.
Hermas was one of the Seventy Apostles.
He is mentioned in the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans. "Salute
Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes and the brethren which
are with them" (
Romans 16:14). Hermas was a Greek by birth but
lived in Rome for a long time. He was a bishop in Philippoupolis and
ended his life as a martyr. He compiled a very instructive book
called "The Shepherd" according to revelations from an
angel of God. Hermas was a wealthy man but because of his sins and
the sins of his sons, he fell into extreme poverty. Once while in
prayer, a man appeared to him in white raiment with a staff in his
hand and told him that he is an angel of repentance who was sent to
be with him until the end of his life. The angel gave him twelve
mandates:
- Believe in God;
- To live in simplicity and innocence;
do not speak evil and give alms to all who beg;
- Love truth and avoid falsehood;
- Preserve chastity in your thoughts;
- Learn patience and generosity;
- To know that with every man, there
is a good and an evil spirit;
- To fear God and not to fear the
devil;
- To do every good and to refrain from
every evil deed;
- To pray to God from the depth of the
soul with faith that our prayer will be fulfilled;
- To guard against melancholy as the
sister of doubt and anger;
- To question true and false
prophecies;
- To guard against every evil desire
The Holy Martyr Hermeas.
Hermeas grew old as an imperial soldier
and in his old age suffered for Christ the King. Since the evil judge
tried in vain to dissuade him from the Faith of Christ and counseling
him to offer sacrifices to the idols, the judge then gave orders that
his teeth be knocked out with a stone and the skin peeled from his
face with a knife. After that they threw him into a fiery furnace
but, by the Grace of God, he was saved and stood up. Following that,
by order of the judge he drank a bitter poison which was given to him
by a magician, but the poison did him no harm. Witnessing this, the
magician was so amazed that he openly confessed Christ for which he
was immediately beheaded. Afterwards, they gouged out both of
Hermeas' eyes but he did not grieve and cried out to the judge: "Take
for yourself these bodily eyes that gaze upon the vanity of the
world. I have eyes of the heart by which I clearly see the light of
the truth." He was hung then by the feet upside down and those
who did this to him were blinded and staggered around him. St.
Hermeas beckoned them to come to him, laid his hands on them and, by
prayer to the Lord, restored their sight. Witnessing all of this, the
judge became as enraged as a lion, drew a knife and severed the head
of this godly-man. Christians secretly removed the body of Hermeas
and honorably buried it. His relics gave healing to all the sick and
to the afflicted. St. Hermeas suffered in the year 166 A.D., during
the reign of Emperor Antoninus.
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