E07129: The second 'epic' Greek Martyrdom of *Prokopios from Scythopolis (martyr of Palestine, S00118) gives the saint a new background story as a pagan military commander originally named Neanias, converted to Christianity and martyred in Caesarea (Palestine). Written sometime in the 5th-8th century somewhere in the East, perhaps in Caesarea.

Martyrdom of Prokopios (BHG 1577)

Summary:

§ 1: In the reign of Diokletianos, there is a persecution of Christians. While the church is still at peace, the persecution begins when imperial letters arrive at every corner of the world, including the city of Aelia [Capitolina, i.e. Jerusalem]. The letter is quoted; in it Diokletianos expresses his displeasure that there are certain people in the empire who renounce the gods and worship a dead mortal man. For this reason he commands all the inhabitants of the empire to placate the gods and receive the additional reward of 50,000 silver pieces, or else suffer capital punishment. After publishing the decree, the emperor goes to Antioch and rejoices in the paganism of his subjects.

§ 2: In Aelia there is a woman of senatorial rank and first of the city, Theodosia, who is a pagan, although her late husband Christophoros had been a Christian. She takes her young son Neanias with her to Antioch and presents him to the emperor, wishing to enrol him in the imperial service. The emperor duly gives the boy the doukaton [office of dux, military commander of local troops] of Alexandria, and tells him to persecute any Christians and confiscate their property, explaining their religion in a passage influenced by the Gospels, which Diokletianos professes to have studied. He also gives Neanias two noumera of soldiers to accompany him.

§ 3: Neanias travels towards Egypt by night, because the daytime heat keeps killing their horses, arriving before dawn at Apamea in Syria. After leaving Apamea, thirty stades from the city, in the third hour of the night, there is an earthquake and a flash of lightning, and a voice from heaven says 'Neanias, you are going to die, and where are you going to?'. The youth explains his mission, and Christ reveals himself to him in the form of a crystal cross. He explains to Neanias the logic of the crucifixion and its necessity for the salvation of humanity, which had escaped Diokletianos' understanding.

§ 4: Neanias and his entourage rejoice, and he leads his men to Skythopolis, going to the local goldsmiths' guild and requesting them to make him a vessel. The members of the guild give the task to their best goldsmith, named Markos. Neanias takes Markos to his quarters alone, and asks him to make a cross out of gold and silver. Markos is hesitant, because he fears the wrath of the emperors, but eventually Neanias convinces him by promising to keep it a secret. Markos, working alone, makes the cross before the night is over, and when it is complete, three images appear miraculously on its surface, one at each end, each with a corresponding inscription in Hebrew: Emmanouel, Michael and Gabriel. Markos tries to remove them, but his hand is paralysed. At cockcrow the doux Neanias arrives to collect the cross, and learns of the miraculous appearance of the images from Markos. Neanias rewards him with great honours and, kissing the cross, wraps it in purple cloth.

§ 5: When the people from the towns around Jerusalem report to Neanias that Saracen raiders are in the habit of stealing their daughters for wives, Neanias rides out at the head of his soldiers, carrying the cross and intending to put to the test the words he had heard from the apparition. He prays to God, and God answers him, affirming His help. Together with his soldiers, he engages the Saracens and defeats them soundly, killing six thousand with no losses of his own.

§ 6: Neanias' mother learns from one of the soldiers, sent as a messenger, of her son's victory and is overjoyed. When Neanias arrives home, however, they disagree as to which deity helped him win the battle. As the household gods fail to answer the question of who helped Neanias, the youth overthrows them and flattens the gold and silver statues,giving them to the poor. His mother, however, denounces her son to the emperor, who commands him to be slain if he will not repent, and promises his mother a senator of her choosing to be her new son.

§ 7: The emperor sends a letter to the governor in Caesarea, Oulkion, and instructs him to take the senators of the surrounding towns with him and question the doux Neanias, and, if he is found to be Christian, to strip him of his belt of office and kill him. When Oulkion arrives at Neanias' house with the letter, the doux tears the letter into pieces and confesses that he is a Christian. Oulkion finds himself in a difficult situation as Neanias' friend, and attempts to persuade him to sacrifice to the gods, so as to avoid being forced to execute his orders. Neanias refuses and, taking off his belt, throws it in the governor's face. Angered, Oulkion orders him arrested and takes him to Caesarea, where he is supervising the construction of a temple. The pagan crowd reacts angrily at the sight of Neanias. The governor has him tortured by scraping until fourteen torturers [kyestionarioi, i.e. questionarii] have been exhausted and his body is badly mangled. Believed by the onlookers to be already dead, Neanias is taken to prison.

§ 8: The prison warden [kapiklarios, i.e. clavicularius] Terentios, a friend of the martyr, lays his body on a bed of hay and cloth in the inner prison. At the sixth hour of the night there is an earthquake, and the Lord Jesus Christ arrives with four archangels to visit his servant. The prison is opened and the prisoners' fetters fall off. The angels address Neanias, who tests them first by asking that they kneel and make the sign of the cross, which they do. At length the Lord too reveals himself to the martyr and, sprinkling him with water, announces that from now on he will be called Prokopios. The martyr prays for his sins to be forgiven and for strength in his contest; the Lord affirms he is with Prokopios, then ascends to heaven. When the governor sends someone from his retinue (τάξις) to check on Prokopios, the warden recounts the miraculous events of the night.

§ 9: The governor summons Prokopios before him, and the martyr arrives, his face radiant and without a blemish or sign of torture, to the amazement of the onlookers. The governor attempts to attribute his miraculous recovery to the gods, but Prokopios suggests that they go to the temple and find out which god 'remade' (ἀνέπλασεν) him. The governor is overjoyed and has heralds summon the people to witness Neanias making sacrifice to the gods. When they arrive at the temple, the saint goes inside, ostensibly to seek forgiveness for his transgressions. He then prays to God to crush the vain heathen gods, and, making the sign of the cross, commands the idols to fall down and vanish. He casts down thirty-six statues of the gods, and the statues become like water which flows out of the temple.

§ 10: The governor has Prokopios imprisoned once again and questions now the two noumera of soldiers who had followed him, learning that they too have been converted. Afraid to confront them openly because of their number, he plots to surround them in secret with his soldiers and destroy them. In the evening the soldiers with their two tribunes come to the prison, seeking guidance from the martyr. Rejoicing at the news that the soldiers too wish to embrace Christianity, Prokopios arranges with his friend the warden to leave the prison in order to pay a visit to the holy bishop Leontios. The soldiers are baptised that night by the bishop, and are taught the basics of the faith by Prokopios, who proves to be a honey-tongued preacher and worthy of his name [a reference to the derivation of the name Prokopios from the verb προκόπτω 'advance, improve, achieve'].

§ 11: The governor summons the soldiers and orders them to sacrifice to the gods, but they refuse. Angered, the governor orders them to be surrounded by nine units (ἀρχὰς) of spekoulatores and cut down, with Prokopios watching the slaughter. Prokopios prays to God for the soldiers, and a voice from the heavens replies, announcing that the soldiers will be received into heaven and their requests will be granted. The soldiers pray, requesting that God grant their bodies the grace to heal anyone who invokes them through God, and that wherever their relics are located, or wherever their memory is celebrated, that there be no 'fall of people' [πτῶσις ἀνθρώπων, probably meaning fatal outbreaks of disease], but that all be saved in the grace of the Lord. The soldiers then consummate their martyrdom together with their tribunes, Nikostratos and Antiochos. A man named Eulalios and a group of faithful men collect the relics and deposit them with aromatics in a solemn place. Their martyrdom took place on 21 May.

[The following section between §§ 11 and 12 is missing from the manuscript used by Papadopoulos-Kerameus 1898, but is clearly part of the original text. It was edited separately in Delehaye 1909.]

Prokopios is again imprisoned. As he is praying, he is approached by twelve women of senatorial rank, who identify themselves as Christians. Hearing their prayer, the governor incarcerates them as well in the prison, where Prokopios offers them comfort and spiritual guidance. When the women are summoned to stand trial, Prokopios' mother Theodosia arrives to observe the proceedings. The governor attempts to persuade the women to sacrifice to the pagan gods, but they refuse, and he has them flogged and tortured with fire. When the women pray to Christ, he orders that their breasts be cut off, and mocks their faith, but the women affirm their conviction that Christ helps them. Next, bronze spheres are heated up and inserted into their armpits, but their resolve is unflinching. Upon witnessing all this, Theodosia weeps bitterly, disavows her property and rank and enters the stage professing faith in Christ. She engages in a dialogue with the governor, who attempts to persuade her to recant, but Theodosia affirms her former idolatry to have been misguided. She is then imprisoned together