Everything about Pionius totally explained
Saint Pionius (d.
March 12,
250) is a
Christian saint. He was
martyred at
Smyrna during the reign of
Decius.
Pionius, with
Sabina,
Asclepiades,
Macedonia, and
Limnos, was arrested on
23 February, the anniversary of
St. Polycarp's martyrdom.
They had passed the previous night in
prayer and
fasting. Knowing of his impending arrest, Pionius had fastened fetters round the necks of himself and his companions to signify that they were already condemned. People seeing them led off unbound might suppose that they were prepared, like so many other Christians in Smyrna, the
bishop included, to sacrifice.
At Smyrna there were two manifestations of
Nemesis, more akin to
Aphrodite than to
Artemis; it's suggested that they represent two aspects of the
goddess, the kindly and the implacable, or the goddesses of the old city and the new city refounded by
Alexander the Great. The
martyrology Acts of Pionius, set in the
"Decian presecution" of AD 250–51, mentions a lapsed Smyrnan Christian who was attending to the sacrifices at the altar of the temple of these Nemeses.
Early in the morning, after they'd partaken of the
Holy Bread and of water, they were conducted to the forum. The place was thronged with
Greeks and
Jews, for it was a great
Sabbath and therefore a general holiday in the city -- an indication of the importance of the Jews in Smyrna. Pionius harangued the multitude. He begged the Greeks to remember what
Homer had said about not mocking the corpse of an enemy. Let them refrain therefore from mocking those Christians who had
apostatized. He then turned to the Jews and quoted
Moses and
Solomon to the same effect.
He ended with a vehement refusal to offer sacrifice. Then followed the usual interrogatories and threats, after which Pionius and his companions were relegated to prison, to await the arrival of the
proconsul. Here they found other confessors, among them a
Montanist.
Many
pagans visited them, and Christians who had sacrificed, lamenting their fall. The latter Pionius exhorted to
repentance. A further attempt before the arrival of the
proconsul was made to force Pionius and his companions into an act of
apostasy. They were carried off to a
temple where every effort was made to compel them to participate in a sacrifice.
On 12 March, Pionius was brought before the proconsul who first tried persuasion and then
torture. Both having failed, Pionius was condemned to be burnt alive. He suffered in company with
Metrodorus, a
Marcionite priest.
The true day of his martyrdom, according to the Acts, was 12 March.
Eusebius ("H.E.", IV, xv; "Chron.", p. 17, ed. Schoene) places the martyrdom in the reign of
Antoninus. His mistake was probably because he found the martyrdom of Pionius in a volume containing the Acts of Martyrs of an earlier date. Possibly his MS. lacked the chronological note in our present ones.
His feast is kept by the
Latins on 1 February, and by the
Eastern Orthodox and
Byzantine Catholic Churches on 11 March.
Further Information
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