Saint Patrick Bishop of Prusa Icon

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Slavonic inscription: Hieromartyr Patrick (NB This is not St Patrick, Enlightener of Ireland)

Saint Patrick was Bishop of Prusa, a city in Bithynia (the present-day Brusa or Bursa). Because of his Christian faith and fiery zeal, he was brought before Julian the Ypatikon, who in his attempts to persuade Patrick to worship the idols as he himself did, declared that thanks was owed to the gods for providing the hot springs welling up from the earth for the benefit of men. Saint Patrick answered that thanks for this was owed to our Lord Jesus Christ, and explained that when He, Who is God, created the earth, He made it with both fire and water, and the fire under the earth heats the water which wells up, producing hot springs; he then explained that there is another fire, which awaits the ungodly. Because of this, he was cast into the hot springs, but it was the soldiers who cast him in, and not he, who were harmed by the hot water. After this Saint Patrick was beheaded with the presbyters Akakios, Menander, and Polyainos. 

6 x 5 inches