Sant Demetrios Greer Orthodox Church Demetrios Essay

Sant Demetrios Greer Orthodox Church Demetrios are greek items to mean St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church. This paper seeks to talk about St. Demetrios of the Greek Orthodox church and his deeds within the church.

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St. Demetrios is one of the most celebrated saints in the 4th century. Alongside St. Georges they are some of the most important military saints. This can be demonstrated by the fact that they have been given their saints days both in the orthodox church and the roman catholic church. In the Orthodox church, St. Demetrios is celebrated on 26th of October every calendar year while in the roman catholic church, St. Demetrios is celebrated on the 8th of October in every calendar year.

St. Demetrios was born in 270 AD in Thessaloniki, Greece. He came from an awealthy background and was recruited in the military at an early age. This is why he had Byzantine icons in his military dresses alongside a riding or a standing horse to signify authority. The saint however considered himself as a soldier of Christ first then a military soldier second. Through his position as a militant, he happened to engage in serious military work preaching to Christians and converting pagans to Christians.

St. Demetrios was a devout Christian who had faith in what he was doing. He was ready to become a martyr jus in line with the missionary work. At one time, it is recorded that Emperor Maximian arrested and subjected him to torture and cruelty because of the conversions that he was doing. He, however, maintained his faith by a confession that it was only in Christ that he believed in.

Even though he had been arrested and imprisoned, he did not stop his quest to preach and convert Christians to poverty. Some of his followers even visited him in order to get wisdom on how to deal with the new trick that the emperor had put in place to compare Christianity to paganism. He was placing Christians of faith to fight against the huge and gigantic Leo. One of the believers and followers of the saint, Nestoras went and sought advice from him just before he fought Leo. With the blessings of St. Demetrios, Nestoras went ahead and killed Leo.

When the emperor saw that Nestoras had killed Leo, he was enraged. He ordered for the killing of Nestoras. Aware that St. Demetrios was the inspiration behind this victory, he went ahead and ordered for the killing of St.Demetrios on the 26th of October. The Christians decided to bury his remains at the place of his execution because there was a sweet smell that was coming from the tomb. This place was then named Mirovlitis or "The Myrrh-Gusher" ( The Greek Orthodox church of St. Demetrios, n.d).

Achievements of St. Demetrios

One of the profound achievements that St. Demetrios will be remembered for is the role he took in ensuring the people of Thessaloniki were protected from the slave advancements of Slavic nations. The people of Thessaloniki have placed his icons in one of the temples in the area, which is also the place where he was born and died in. His day is always commemorated in the city and the festivities are attended by people from all walks of life including philosophers who are interested in studying the life and times of St. Demetrios.

Apart from the protection which he was offering form the other nations, St.Demetrios also did perform a number of miracles in his days. He believed that there was no honor in death. One of the miracles that the saint was well known of was his ability to heal and ring back to life those who had died ( Rusell, 2010).He performed his miracles so well that by the time he had passed on, his nemesis Gregoras regretted why he had not appreciated the work of the saint while was still alive. ( Rusell, 2010).

The people of Greek can also appreciate the saint because of his ability to heal the sick. The works were so profound but some of the people especially those that did not reside in the city cast doubt upon them. This, therefore, made the locals to set up signs that showed the time, place and the miracle that the good saint performed.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it can be noted that the life of St. Demetrios was one that was worth. Despite coming from a royal family, he dedicated his life to be doing the work of God by preaching and converting non-believers to believe in Christ just like he did. He had faith and believed in his faith to the extent of accepting to be arrested and detained for the sake of Christianity. He continued with his conversion work in prison. Some of the works that St. Demetrios can be remembered with are, the protection that he gave to the people of Thessaloniki against the Slavic attacks as well as the miracles he performed when healing the sick and bringing back the dead to life.

References

Crisafulli, V. S., Nesbitt, J. W., & Haldon, J. F. (1996). The miracles of St. Artemios: A collection of miracle stories by an anonymous author of seventh century Byzantium. The medieval Mediterranean, v. 13. New York: E.J. Brill.

Russell, E. (2010). St. Demetrius of Thessalonica: Cult and devotion in the Middle Ages. Oxford: P. Lang.

The Greek Orthodox church of St. Demetrios, (n.d). Our Patron Saint Demetrios.*patronsaint* retrieved on 29th April 2018 from http://www.st-demetrios.org/patronsaint.html