There was so much to see at the site of ancient Hieropolis. One of my favourite experience was trekking up to the Martyrion of the Apostle St. Philip.

I walked up on my own, silently praying some psalms, shortly before sunset.

There was no one else there as I stood and looked at the rough remnants commemorating Philip’s martyrdom.

What I took in, above all, was a sense of the enduring character of witness. Yes, it matters that there is concreteness to the lives of the martyrs. But, what matters more than their graves is the truth to which they testified and bore witness by their lives and deaths.

By keeping alive the Gospel and the Lives of the Saints, we build martyria in our hearts.

It was beautiful to be reminded of this by the concrete contact with the site.

“Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.'” – John 14:8