August 24 / August 11

1. The Holy Martyr Euplus

Euplus was a deacon in Catania, Sicily. Emperor Diocletian dispatched the Roman commander, Pentagurus, to Sicily to exterminate any Christians he found there. Pentagurus did not find a single Christian, for the few that were there hid from the persecutor and did not reveal themselves. Even so, someone accused Euplus of taking a book to secret Christians and reading to them. This book was the Holy Gospel. They soon brought him to court, hung that book around his neck, and led him to prison. After seven days of imprisonment and hunger, Euplus was given over to torture. While they were beating him with iron rods, Euplus mockingly said to the torturing judge: “O ignorant one, do you not see that, by God’s grace, these tortures are like a cobweb to me? If you can, find other, harsher tortures, for all of these are as toys.” After more of the same, they led the martyr of Christ to the scaffold. There St. Eu- plus opened the Holy Gospel and read from it to the people for a long time. Many converted to the Christian Faith. St. Euplus was beheaded in the year 304, and took up his habitation in the Kingdom of Heaven. His miracle-working relics repose in a village near Naples, called Vico della Batonia.

2.  The Holy Martyr Susanna the Virgin, and others with her

Susanna was the daughter of the Roman presbyter Gabinus, and the niece of Pope Gaius. Gaius and Gabinus were of royal lineage, and kinsmen to the then-ruling Emperor Diocletian. Emperor Diocletian had an adopted son, Maximian Galerius, whom he wanted to marry Susanna. Susanna, completely dedicated to Christ the Lord, did not even want to consider marriage, and particularly not marriage with an unbaptized man. The aristocrats Claudius and Maximus had been pressuring her to marry the emperor’s son, but Susanna converted them and their entire household to the Christian Faith. Enraged by this, the emperor ordered that the executioners take Claudius, Maximus and their household to Ostia—where they burned them alive and threw their ashes into the sea. Susanna was beheaded in the home of her father Gabinus. The emperor’s wife, Serena, secretly a Christian, removed Susanna’s martyred body under cover of night, and honorably buried it. Pope Gaius converted Gabinus’s house into a church and celebrated services there, since this was the place where the young martyr Susanna was slain. Shortly following the suffering of this bride of Christ, her father Presbyter Gabinus and her uncle Pope Gaius also suffered. Susanna, her father and her uncle suffered honorably for the Lord and received their wreaths of glory, in the years 295 and 296.

3. Saint Niphon, Patriarch of Constantinople

Niphon was born in Greece. He was tonsured a monk in his youth and lived a life of asceticism, eventually making his way to Mount Athos. He practiced asceticism in various monasteries, remaining the longest in Vatopedi and Dionysiou. He was loved by all the holy Athonite fathers, as much for his rare wisdom as for his unusual meekness. He was consecrated Bishop of Thessalonica against his will, and then, two years later, he journeyed to Constantinople on business, where he was elected to the vacant patriarchal throne. Eventually, the Sultan banished him to Jedrene, where he lived in exile. The Wallachian Prince Radul be sought him from the Sultan, and made Niphon the archbishop of the Wallachian people. Then, because of Radul’s transgressions, Niphon departed Wallachia and returned to Mount Athos, to the Monastery of Dionysiou. There he lived a life of asceticism until his ninetieth year, when he took up his habitation in the Kingdom of God. He reposed in the year 1508. He composed the “Prayer of Absolution” read at the Burial Service.

4.  The Venerable Monk-martyrs Basil and Theodore of the Monastery of the Kiev Caves

Both Basil and Theodore died by violence at the hands of the avaricious Prince Istislav, in the year 1098. The hagiography of St. Theodore is especially instructive for the avaricious. Theodore was very wealthy, but distributed all of his wealth to the poor and was tonsured a monk. After that, he repented of his charity and grieved for his wealth, being greatly tempted by the evil spirit of avarice—from which St. Basil freed him.

• Taurinus, first bishop of Evreux, Gaul (2nd c.).
• Passarion, bishop in Palestine (428).
• Blaan, bishop of Bute, Scotland (ca. 590).
• Theodore (in monasticism Theodosius) of the Kiev Caves, prince of Ostrog in Volhynia (1483).
• Commemoration of the Miracle (1816) of Spyridon (348) on Corfu with the Hagarenes.
• New Martyrs Anastasius of Asomaton and Demetrius of Lesbos, at Kasampa in Asia Minor (1816).
• John, recluse of Svyatogorsk Monastery (1867).

HYMN OF PRAISE

Saint Susanna the Virgin

A paradisal branch was planted,
And raised on earth.
The branch grew and matured;
Her heart was infused with heaven.
The black earth did not darken her;
The evil of the world did not bend her.
Susanna, who was this paradisal branch,
Was illumined by God’s Spirit.
A bride of Christ God,
She disdained the son of the emperor.
The emperor was angered, and made threats
That he would soon take bitter revenge.
Susanna did not even listen,
Contemplating instead the mind of God.
Her heart was illumined,
And betrothed to Christ.
Her kinsmen were amazed,
And were all baptized in Christ,
And became martyrs.
The emperor raised his bloody hand,
And inflicted suffering on Susanna.
But all suffering is as nothing,
When the soul is strong in faith.
Susanna’s head fell from her,
And her soul arose in Paradise.
In Paradise, Susanna’s pure soul stood before her Christ. 

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