The Martyrdom

The Church remembers the Apostle Philip as a martyr at Hierapolis, and the tradition gives his death the form of crucifixion — in a widespread strand, head-downward — sometimes in company with Bartholomew. But this martyrdom is known only through tradition: the apocryphal Acts of Philip, the synaxaria, and the iconography, not through any early documentary martyr-act. This file sets out the martyrdom tradition, its forms and motifs, and the grading it requires, marking honestly the absence of the kind of early source that secures the death of a Polycarp.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Apostle)

A Death Known Through Tradition

It is important to state at the outset what kind of evidence the martyrdom rests on. For St. Polycarp of Smyrna the Church possesses the Martyrium Polycarpi, a contemporary letter of the church of Smyrna composed within living memory of the event (see St. Polycarp of Smyrna). For Philip there is no such early martyr-act. The earliest witnesses (Polycrates, Papias, Clement, in Eusebius) say that a Philip “fell asleep” or “sleeps” at Hierapolis (Eusebius, HE 3.31, 3.39, 5.24; see The Mission) — language that affirms his death and burial there but does not, of itself, narrate a martyrdom. The developed martyrdom narrative comes from the fourth-century, encratite Acts of Philip and from the synaxarial and iconographic tradition that drew upon it (see The Acts of Philip). The martyrdom must therefore be reported as graded tradition, pinned to its attestation, not asserted as documented history (METHODOLOGY §3.5).

The Crucifixion Tradition

The dominant form of the tradition has Philip put to death by crucifixion at Hierapolis. In the Acts of Philip, after the apostle’s preaching has overthrown the city’s serpent-cult and turned the proconsul’s wife and household to a life of continence, the enraged rulers seize Philip (and Bartholomew) and hang him up to die — pierced through the ankles or heels and suspended, a form of the cross (Bovon and Matthews, The Acts of Philip, 2012; see The Acts of Philip). From his place of suffering the apostle continues to preach; in the narrative the earth opens to swallow his persecutors, and Philip prays for them, staying the judgment and converting many — a scene of the martyr who forgives even from the cross.

A widespread strand of the tradition specifies that Philip was crucified head-downward (upside-down), like Peter. [Disputed: the manner of Philip's martyrdom varies in the sources: the *Acts of Philip* and much of the iconographic tradition give crucifixion, with a strong strand specifying head-downward (upside-down) suspension; some accounts add or substitute stoning or being pierced; the head-downward detail in particular is a feature of the apocryphal and later hagiographic tradition, not of any early documentary martyr-act.] The upside-down motif, whatever its origin, became a fixed feature of Philip’s iconography, which often shows him bound to a cross or a tau-shaped instrument (see Iconography and Cult).

Bartholomew and the Shared Suffering

In many forms of the tradition Philip does not suffer alone. Bartholomew, his fellow apostle and companion in the Phrygian mission, is seized and crucified with him; but where Philip dies, Bartholomew is taken down alive — released, in the narratives, in response to the wonders accompanying Philip’s death and the conversion of the crowd (Bovon and Matthews, 2012; the synaxaria for November 14; see The Companions). Mariamne, Philip’s sister, is present in the Acts and shares in the company’s sufferings. This shared-martyrdom motif binds the deaths of the two apostles paired in the lists of the Twelve (see Philip of Bethsaida), and it is the form the iconography frequently depicts.

The Martyr’s Forgiveness

Across the tradition’s variants one feature is constant and theologically central: the apostle’s forgiveness of his persecutors from the cross. In the Acts, when the earth swallows his enemies, Philip does not exult but intercedes for them, praying that the judgment be stayed and they be saved — an imitation of the Lord’s own “Father, forgive them” (Luke 23:34) and a sign that even the apocryphal narrative grasps the heart of Christian martyrdom: the witness who dies blessing those who kill him (Bovon and Matthews, 2012). This is the element of the tradition the Church has most readily received, sifted from the encratite frame: not the talking animals or the dragon-cult, but the martyr conformed to Christ in suffering and in mercy (cf. the “martyrdom according to the gospel” of the Polycarp tradition; see St. Polycarp of Smyrna).

Holding the Martyrdom

The honest summary is twofold. On one hand, the fact of Philip’s death and burial at Hierapolis is early and well attested (Polycrates, Papias, Clement; confirmed in stone by the great pilgrimage sanctuary excavated there; see The Martyrium Found 2011). On the other, the manner of his martyrdom — crucifixion, head-downward, with Bartholomew, against the serpent-cult — is graded tradition, drawn from the fourth-century apocryphal Acts and the later hagiography, not from any contemporary martyr-act, and its details vary among the sources. The Church venerates Philip as a holy apostle and martyr; she does so on the strength of the early memory of his death at Hierapolis and the long tradition of his witness, while the present collection marks plainly which elements are firm and which are graded. The martyr remembered on November 14 is the apostle of John’s Gospel, who labored and died for Christ at Hierapolis; the dramatic particulars of his death belong to the tradition that the next files weigh (see The Feast and the Fast and Reception and Legacy).

See Also

References

  • Eusebius of Caesarea. The Ecclesiastical History 3.31, 3.39, 5.24. Trans. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series II, Vol. 1. 1890. (“Philip . . . sleeps in Hierapolis.”)
  • Bovon, François, and Christopher R. Matthews. The Acts of Philip: A New Translation. Waco: Baylor University Press, 2012. (The martyrdom narrative; the crucifixion; the forgiveness of persecutors.)
  • The Great Synaxaristes of the Orthodox Church: November. Buena Vista, CO: Holy Apostles Convent. (The synaxarion for November 14; the shared suffering with Bartholomew.)
  • The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. (Luke 23:34.)