Icon of Saint Hierotheos, Bishop of Athens – S126

Description

Saint Hierotheos was a very learned pagan from Athens who was converted by Saint Paul in about the year a.d. 53.  Saint Paul also ordained him to become the first bishop of Athens.   He is often also given the title in Greek of “Thesmothete” which means  literally, “rule-setter.”  In Athens, Saint Hierotheos was a friend of Saint Dionysios the Areopagite, whom he frequently visited and instructed more fully in the Christian Faith.  Saint Dionysios had also been converted and baptized by Saint Paul.

Saint Hierotheos was known to be a fine singer, preacher, and writer of hymns, and converted many Greeks to the Christian Faith.  By Divine Providence, Saint Hierotheos was brought, along with Saint Dionysious the Areopagite, to Jerusalem at the time of the Virgin Mary’s Dormition, or her falling asleep in the Lord, in about  a.d. 52 or shortly thereafter.  Saint Hierotheos, whose name means “sanctified by God” in Greek, sang hymns at her funeral when he was with the Apostles who were gathered there.  After a  life of service to Christ, Whom he loved, Saint Hierotheos was crowned with the wreath of martyrdom at the end of the 1st century.