Saint of the Day – 18 September – Saint Methodius of Olympus (Died c311) Confessor, Bishop, Martyr

Saint of the Day – 18 September – Saint Methodius of Olympus (Died c311) Confessor, Bishop of Olympus in Lycia in Asia Minor, Martyr, Ecclesiastical Scholar and Author, renowned Theologian. After Olympus it seems that he was appointed as the Bishop of Tyre, Lebanon, or possibly Patara, in the same country. Date of birth unknown, Methodius died a Martyr, probably in 311 in Chalcis, in modern Greece. His works include the “Treatise “On the Resurrection” and “Symposium on Virginity.”

The Roman Martyrology reads today: “The same da, [as St Joseph of Cupertino] the birthday of St Methodius, Bishop of Olympus in Lycia and afterwards of Tyre. Most renowned for his eloquence and learning. St Jerome says that he won the Crown of Martyrdom at Chalcis in Greece at the end of the last persecution there.”

We are indebted to St Jerome for the earliest accounts of Methodius. According to him, Methodius suffered Martyrdom at Chalcis at the end of the newest persecution, i.e., under Diocletian, Galerius or Maximinus.

Methodius had a very comprehensive philosophical education and was an important Theologian and a prolific and polished Author. Chronologically, his works can only be assigned, in a general way, to the end of the 3rd and beginning of the 4th Century. He became of special importance in the history of theological literature, in that he successfully combated various erroneous views of the great Alexandrian, Origen.

He particularly attacked his doctrine that man’s body, at the resurrection, is not the same body as he had in lif. Another area of Methodius’ opposition was Origen’s idea of the world’s eternity and the erroneous notions it involved. Nevertheless, he recognised Origen’s great services to the Church in Ecclesiastical Theology. Like Origen, Methodius is strongly influenced by Plato’s philosophy and uses, to a great extent, the allegorical style of explanation especially of Scripture.

Of his numerous works only one has come down to us in a complete state in a Greek text, –Th Symposium on Virginity. However, we do have Slavonian versions or portions thereof, of all his other works. He also wrote commentaries on Genesis and on the Song of Songs, many other areas of Sacred Scripture and other holy subjects, for example on the Martyrs, on marriage, on the food laws of the Jews, etc.