Holy Hieromartyr Hypatius, Bishop of Gangra (+c. 326)

The holy Hieromartyr Hypatius, Bishop of Gangra (+c. 326), laboured in Paphlagonia. In 325 he took part in the First Ecumenical Council, which anathematised the heresy of Arius.

In 326, as Saint Hypatius was returning from Constantinople to Gangra, followers of the heretics Novatus and Felicissimus attacked him on the way. The heretics wounded the bishop and threw him into a swamp. Like the protomartyr deacon Stephen, Hypatius blessed his murderers. A stone thrown by a woman who followed Arius struck the saint on the head and killed him. The heretics hid Saint Hypatius’s body in a cave, where a peasant found it. The people of Gangra buried the holy hierarch’s relics with honour.

Many miracles were worked at the holy relics of the Hieromartyr Hypatius.