The Hieromartyr Antipas, Bishop of Pergamon (92), a disciple of St. John the Theologian
Antipas is mentioned in the Book of Revelation as, Antipas, my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth (Revelation 2:13), that is, in the city of Pergamon. The inhabitants of this city lived in the darkness of idolatry and in extreme impurity. They were slaves to passions. They were slanderers, tyrants, and incestuous people. In other words, they were the servants of Satan. Here among them lived Antipas, “as a light in the midst of darkness, as a rose among thorns and as gold in the mire.” In this city, he who captured and killed a Christian was deemed good and just. The totality of their pagan belief consisted of soothsaying, interpretation of dreams, serving demons and extreme perversion. Being frightened of Antipas as of fire, the demons appeared to the soothsayers in a dream and confessed how afraid they were of Antipas—and how, because of him, they had to depart from the city. The pagan priests assembled a large number of people against Antipas and interrogated him, trying to force him to deny Christ and worship idols. Antipas said to them: “When your-so-called gods, lords of the universe, are frightened of me, a mortal man, and must flee from this city, do you not this that your faith is a delusion?” The saint spoke to them further about the Christian Faith as the One, True, Saving Faith. They became as enraged as wild beasts and dragged the aged Antipas to the temple of Artemis, before which stood an ox cast in bronze. They heated the bronze ox and hurled the servant of God inside. From within the fiery ox, St. Antipas glorified God with thanksgiving, like Jonah in the belly of the whale or the Three Youths in the fiery furnace. the entire world, until his soul parted from his weakened body and ascended among the angels into the Kingdom of Christ. He died in torments and was crowned with unfading glory in the year 92. He is the patron saint of dentists.
