22nd December is the day for remembering two
obscure saints from 3rd century Egypt, namely Chaeremon and Ischyrion. They
suffered under the persecution of Decius, the Emperor of Rome from 249 to 251.
Decius had ordered all citizens of the empire to make sacrifices to the pagan
gods. Certificates were issued as proof that people had done so and had also their
sacrifice witnessed. Christians, as might be expected, refused to make these
sacrifices and were therefore easily identified because they were not able to
produce certificates when they were demanded.
One way of avoiding the demand to make sacrifices was to
escape to somewhere that the Roman officials would not think of going, and this
was the course taken by Chaeremon, the elderly bishop of Nilopolis. He and a
group of companions simply upped sticks and disappeared into the mountains of
Arabia. That was the last that anyone ever saw or heard of him, even when
fellow Christians later went to try to find him.
Ischyrion was a more traditional kind of martyr in that he
did not escape but stayed put and suffered the consequences. He had been employed
by a magistrate in Alexandria who insisted that Ischyrion renounce his faith
and make the prescribed sacrifice. When he refused to do so he found that his
employer could be a ruthless enemy, because he was then flogged and killed by
being impaled on a stake.
© John Welford
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