Antioch

ANTIOCH (or Antakya or Hatay)

    Antioch's strategic location on the banks of the Orontes
    river lent easy ingress from the Mediterranean to the
    Near East. This status as Crossroads and Gateway led
    to its  apellation: Queen City of the East.

    Alexander the Great is said to have camped here. He
    later endowed one of his generals, Seleucus I Nicator,
    with the area. Seleucus founded the city of Antioch here
    in the late 4th century. He also founded some 15 more of
    the same name in the area.  

Antioch is arguably the hub of early Christianity. The City was  evangelized by
Simon Peter the Apostle (Acts xi:20) and by the Apostles Paul of Tarsus and
Barnabas (Acts xi:26) who were responsible for the origin of the word "Christian".  
the Gospel of Matthew was written there.  

The church of St. Peter's Grotto reportedly founded ca. 47 to 54 A.D. and still and
still conducting Services is touted as the first Christian Church.

Antioch was also the breeding ground for the proliferation of several early
"heresies" and Church Councils to deal with them. Particularly pervasive from the
third Century was  Arianism and yet has its adherents. They believed that Jesus,
though Divine, was created by God and inferior to him.  

By the time of the Roman Emperor Theodosius (379-395) the population of
Antioch was reckoned by St.John Chrysostom at about 100,000 souls.

Due to its strategic location it was key to the success of the Crusaders; without it's
control the Crusaders could not move on to Jerusalem. It had been occupied since
1085  by the Muslim. In 1098, Crusaders took the city after a siege of seven and
one half months. After a great deal of political infighting, unfortunately all too
typical of the Crusades,  among themselves and the Byzantine Emperor, Alexios I ,
Antioch was conferred upon Count Bohemund of Tarantum/Otratanto, as the first
Prince of the Principality of Antioch.  


Antioch claims a plethora of Saints.

St. Ignatius of Antioch

    Also called Theophorus, ca. 50 - 98/117, is often depicted with
    the lions which martyred him. Legend has it that Ignatius was
    the child whom the Savior took up in His arms, Mark 9:35. He
    was the third Bishop of Antioch, counting St. Peter, receiving
    his episcopal consecration at the hands of the Apostles
    themselves, presumably St. Peter and St. Paul.

    He was zealously militant in opposing the Decree of the Roman
    Emperor Trajan's decree that the Christians should unite with
    their pagan neighbors in worship of the gods. In doing so
    before Trajan during his stay in Antioch he was put in chains
    and transported to Rome where he was thrown to the lions in
    the arena ca. 115. He was a prolific writer in defense of
    Christianity even writing and disseminating many letters during
    his captive journey to Rome,98 - 115.  

St. Simeon the Stylite

    390?-459, a Syrian ascetic started the sect of Pillar
    ascetics. He began on a Pillar ca. six feet high and spent
    the last thirty years of his life, never descending,  on a
    sixty foot Pillar. The nearby Monastery of St. Simeon
    Stylites is a popular Pilgrimage site. He and his many
    disciples  and followers, prominently St. Simeon Stylites
    the Younger,521-592,  and St. Daniel Stylites, ca. 409,
    founded hundreds of monastic communities throughout
    the area and Byzantium. The Stylites often chained
    themselves to the top of their pillar and were commonly
    interred at its base.  

St. Margaret of Antioch or Marina or Marie

    Virgin and martyr; belonged to Pisidian Antioch in Asia
    Minor, where her father was a pagan priest. An
    immensely popular Saint, particularly among the laity,
    unto this day. She resisted the overtures of
    marriage/concubinage by the Roman Prefect Olybrius,
    ca. 303. She continued to refuse and would not disavow
    her Christianity. She survived the attempts to burn her at
    the stake, and boil her in a cauldron, then beheaded.
    She did not survive the beheading.

She made a  dying promise to assist anyone, especially pregnant women, who
had written down and read or had read to them her life chronicle. Stanzaic
versions of her Life made it easy for illiterate folke to memorize, perhaps
enhancing her popularity.

She was also widely appealed to in resisting Demons and Dragons. The Dragon
was known by all to be a manifestation of Satan. A popular legend is that she was
swallowed by a dragon and then disgorged when she made the sign of the Cross,
hence the common depiction of St. Margaret with a dragon. In some versions the
Dragon burst apart in disgorging her.

She is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, and hers was one of the voices heard by
Joan of Arc.

St. Nicholas of Myra or of Bari

    Another exceedingly popular Saint from the area
    of Antioch. He was Bishop of Myra in Lycia; died 6
    December, 345 or 352. Of his many miracles
    before and after his death is that of the oily
    substance known as the Manna of St. Nicholas,
    highly valued for its medicinal powers, and  said to
    flow from his Relics, presently in Bari, Italy.

    His iconography of the three gold coins or gold
    balls or bags (stockings) of gold comes from three
    young virgins about to be sold into prostitution by
    their impoverished Father. Seeking anonymity he
    went to their cottage at night and tossed gold
    coins in which fell in the girls' stockings hung to
    dry by the hearth.

    Hence children receiving sweets in their stockings
    on his Feast Day, December 6.  Much later he was
    to become known as Sinterklaus (Santa Claus).
Crusade to Jerusalem
Nov 3-5, 2007
Hosted by the Canton of Mathom Trove
St Ignatious,
martyered by
lions
Church of St Simeon