AN INTERPRETATION

 

In reviewing the typikon from time to time, one encounters the names and stories of saints who are mentioned only infrequently in these times. They seem like remote figures of an ancient age of little relevance to the present. Their images challenge us to consider their messages and their application to modern times. On the second day of the new Church year which began on September 1, we encountered a saint as charming as he is enigmatic. His name is St. Mamas. He died young but gloriously and has a story to tell which we relate here.

Mamas was born in the third century in Paphalagonia in Asia Minor to well known Christian parents, Theodotos and Rufina, who had been imprisoned by the Roman authorities for their open confession and practice of Christianity. Theodotos died in prison and his wife's death followed soon thereafter but not before giving birth to a son, Mamas. The infant orphan was entrusted to the care of a rich Christian widow named Ammia. The widow cared for Mamas and provided for his education and Christian upbringing. His pious example and preaching of the Gospel soon came to the attention of the Roman governor. The 15 year old Mamas was arrested and brought before the governor who sought to dissuade him from his practices and upon failing, sent him to the Roman emperor, Aurelian (270 - 275) for consideration. The Emperor too failed to move Mamas to deny Christ and to worship the Emperor's gods. This led to harsher treatment.

Somehow Mamas managed to escape to the mountains where he led an austere monastic-like existence of prayer and fasting. It was in this environment that he demonstrated an influence over his surroundings and on the beasts and birds of the wilderness to whom he preached the Gospel not unlike his illustrious successor of another space and time, St. Francis of Assisi.

Mamas' reputation spread throughout the region and eventually came to the attention of the Roman governor who ordered his arrest. According to one account, Mamas turned himself in to the authorities accompanied by a lion. Apparently the Roman authorities were not impressed, for he was arrested, imprisoned and subjected to the usual harsh torments of the times which ended in his being thrown to the lions, literally. He emerged from the encounter unharmed but was struck and wounded by a pagan priest wielding a trident. He escaped to a cave where he died of his injuries around the year 275 AD.

News of Mamas' martyrdom spread throughout Asia Minor where, according to the practice of the Early Church, he was popularly acclaimed "holy" i. e. a saint, a fact later confirmed by St. Basil the Great. [2] As was common in those and in later times, the deeds of saints and martyrs came to be embellished by pious legend. For our purpose in this page, the distinction between the bare facts and the legend is irrelevant because we acknowledge that hagiography is not historiography. More important are the lessons conveyed to us by the lives and deeds of our saints reputed or otherwise. Our iconographers are fond or portraying the saint riding on the back of a lion and holding a lamb in his arms. This image might be viewed less as the portrayal of a real event but rather as a representation of a person or event intended to convey a meaning beyond the image which appears in paint on wood. While we view the icon with our eyes, we are invited to perceive its message with our minds. Thus we call them "windows to heaven".

The image of St. Mamas on the lion's back serves to remind us in a symbolic manner of the theology of the Eastern Church regarding creation and man's place in it as a part thereof. Although we divide creation into inanimate and animate being and further distinguish man as intelligent animate creation, we treat all of creation as a unity in which mankind plays a significant role. We acknowledge God as Creator, as uncreated essence, which exists apart from creation but is imminent in all of it as "divine energy". Scripture tells us that we shall have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all creeping things that move upon the earth. Genesis 1: 28 This dominion is subject to the condition that mankind shall cultivate the earth and care for it as steward. Genesis 2: 15 This right of dominion coupled with the duty of stewardship is paramount in the Eastern Church's theology of creation. The icon of St. Mamas makes that clear. As surrogate for us all, he rides the lion thus asserting dominion over it and all creation. The lamb in his arms illustrates our stewardship of living things. Represented here is the oneness of mankind with all of creation of which mankind is custodian.

The cosmology of the Eastern Church as illustrated in the icon of St. Mamas is sorely tried in these times when the plunder and ruthless exploitation of the earth's resources for the benefit of the few and to the exclusion of the many and of future generations is the norm. [3] The rich tradition within Eastern Christianity has consistently taught the sacredness of the world and the interrelationship of humanity with all of life. The radically communitarian vision becomes clear in the patristic teaching that links the salvation of mankind with the salvation of the world. Again and again, the tradition instructs us to have compassion for the whole universe and every living creature which are the works of God. Our icon illustrates this bond between dominion and stewardship. (This paragraph is paraphrased in substantial part from the forward to BEYOND THE SHATTERED IMAGE by Greek Orthodox deacon, John Chryssaugis, which we commend to our readers.) See also THE COSMOLOGY OF THE EASTERN CHURCH at http://www.byzantines.net/epiphany/cosmology.htm

FOOTNOTES

1) This icon is courtesy of Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Brookline, MA

2) In the Early Church, tradition, popular acclamation and veneration were widely respected in making selections to sainthood. This is still the practice in the Eastern Orthodox Churches. Only in later centuries did the Churches seek to regularize the recognition of saints through a process called canonization. For a discussion of this practice in the Orthodox Churches, we direct your attention to the subject, Canonization, in A DICTIONARY OF GREEK ORTHODOXY by Fr. Nicon Patrinakos.

3) There are other cosmologies influencing our decisions. First, there is the radical & self-righteous, fundamentalist & Calvinist view that emphasizes mankind's dominion over creation, the extreme aspect of which includes unfettered privilege to take, use and exploit the world's resources regardless of impact on current and future generations. Profit aggrandizement governs this mode of thinking. The advocates of this doctrine include also the moguls and malefactors of great wealth, the buccaneers of American capitalism. This is the dominant ideology influencing national policy & decision-making in recent years. Another school emerged in the "Age of Aquarius" viz. 1960ies, giving rise to notions of "animals rights" and "specieism" which fail to acknowledge man's domination over nature and hold that mankind is just another species no better than any other. Thus, animals should not be used as sources of food and for medical research. A third school, the environmental movement, became prominent in the 1960ies and later but has much older roots in the American experience of the earlier decades of the twentieth century. This approach is similar to the Eastern Christian cosmology without the latter's theological restraints and underpinnings.

4) The appearance of St. John of the Fast in the same icon with St. Mamas perplexed us at first because the two are unrelated and existed in different time and space. Further inquiry disclosed a common practice in Byzantine iconography to place saints who are commemorated on the same date in the same icon. Since any given icon may have a liturgical commemoration, just as any given liturgical commemoration may have an icon , it is completely appropriate to depict the saints for a given day, week or month in the same icon, the idea being that for every such period of time there are multiple commemorations and rather than writing several separate icons it is simply more practical to put several separate saints in the same icon. The feast day for St. Mamas and St. John of the Fast is September 2. In the Roman Church St. Mamas is commemorated on August 17.