By Bishop Gregorios of Mesaoria
The Church celebrates today the memory of the Great Martyr Procopius and his pious mother, Theodosia.
The Holy Great Martyr Procopius lived during the reign of the emperor Diocletian. His father, Christopher, was a Christian, but his mother, Theodosia, remained a pagan.
After his father’s death, his mother, Theodosia, presented him to the emperor, who made Saint Procopius Duke of Alexandria, and sent him there to persecute and punish the Christians.
On the way to Alexandria, there were thunders and lightning while he heard a voice calling him by his name. Saint Procopius then pleaded with the one who spoke to him to reveal himself. At that moment a radiant Cross appeared in the air and a voice exclaimed, “I am the crucified Jesus, the Son of God.” This divine sign turned this new persecutor to faith in Him and be baptised.
Later, after a victorious mission against the Saracens, his mother tried to persuade him to sacrifice to idols. He was taken to worship the idols, because he refused to do so, but at his prayer, the idols fell. This miracle made many then believe in Christ, among them the Saint’s own mother, Theodosia. It was immediately commanded that all those who had believed in Jesus should be beheaded.
There are times in history when the parents, either by ignorance, by selfishness and arrogance, and because of their ideas and beliefs, they influence their children to embark on such paths. This happens when they forget that everybody, since our birth, has inherited the righteousness, honesty and morality, which helps us to tell the difference between the just and the unjust law, the true from the fake, the virtue and the evil.
Today the Metochion of Saint Procopius in Nicosia, under the jurisdiction of Kykkos Monastery, as well as Sygkrasi, the village in the Famagusta District, with the homonymous temple celebrate the memory of the saint.
