March 7 / February 22

The Holy Martyr Maurice and the Seventy Soldiers with Him, at Apamea (286-305)

During the reign of Emperor Maximian there was a great persecution of Christians. In the Syrian town of Apamea, Maurice was commander of the local army. The pagans reported him to the emperor as being a Chris- tian and a sower of the Christian Faith among the soldiers. The emperor himself came and conducted an investigation. Along with Maurice, seventy Christian soldiers were also brought before the emperor, among whom was Photinus, the son of Maurice. Neither the emperor’s flattery nor his threats could sway these heroes. To the threats of the emperor, they re- plied: “O Emperor, there is no fear in the powerful and sound souls of those who love the Lord!” When the emperor ordered that their military belts and garments be removed, they said to him: “Our God will clothe us with incorruptible garments and belts, and with eternal glory!” When the emperor rebuked them because they despised the military honor he had given them, they replied: “Your honor is without honor, for you have for- gotten God, Who gave you imperial power!” Then the emperor command- ed the executioner to behead Maurice’s son, Photinus, before his father’s eyes, in order to instill fear in the father and the others. But Maurice said: “You have fulfilled our wish, O torturer, and have sent Photinus, the soldier of Christ, before us.” Then the emperor sentenced them to a most inhuman death: they were brought to a marshy place, stripped, bound to trees and rubbed with honey, in order to be bitten by mosquitoes, wasps and hornets. After ten days in the most painful sufferings, they gave up their souls to God and departed to rejoice eternally with the holy angels in heaven. Christians secretly removed their bodies and honorably buried them. These courageous soldiers of Christ suffered in about the year 305.

During the reign of Emperor Arcadius, the relics of many martyrs of Christ were unearthed, among whom was the Apostle Andronicus and his helper Junia (Romans 16:7). These relics were discovered through a revelation from God to a cleric, Nicholas Calligraphus. “Their names are known only to God, Who has written their names in the Book of Life in the heavens.” In the twelfth century, Emperor Andronicus I built a beautiful church over the relics of the Apostle Andronicus.

The Venerable Thalassius and Limnaeus, hermits, near Cyrrhus (5th ) Both Thalassius and Limnaeus were Syrian ascetics. One of their particular ascetic labors was silence. Following the death of St. Thalassius in 440, Limnaeus joined St. Maron (February 14) and with him labored in asceticism on top of a mountain under the open sky.

Saint Papius of Hierapolis (2nd )

Papius was a disciple of the holy apostles and a patristic author. From Papius we have testimony concerning the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark, the four Marys, and the brothers of the Lord, as well as an incomplete but preserved manuscript, An Interpretation of the Words of Our Lord.

• Abilius, bishop of Alexandria (98).
• Telesphorus, pope of Rome (127).
• Titus, bishop of Bostra in Arabia (378).
• Baradates, hermit, near Antioch (469).
• Holy Nine Children of Kola, Georgia: Guarami, Adarnasi, Bakari, Vache, Bardzini, Dachi, Djuansheri, Ramazi, and Parsmani (6th ).
• Leontius of Lycia (6th c.).
• Babylus and his wife Comnita, of Nicosa (7th c.).
• Athanasius the Confessor, of Constantinople (826).
• Peter the Stylite, of Mt. Athos.
• Herman, founder of Stolobny Monastery (Novgorod) (1614).
• New Hieromartyr Michael Lisitsyn, priest, of Ust-Labinskaya (1918).

HYMN OF PRAISE

Saints Maurice and Photinus, Soldiers of Christ

Of noble root—of noble vine,
The young Photinus: a beautiful and well-pleasing sacrifice to God.
The father was a witness as they beheaded his son.
As streams of red blood poured out,
The heart of Maurice, the courageous father, was overcome;
Neither did he scream, nor sorrow, nor shed a tear.
“Dear God, Thou didst give him to me,” he said.
“O Good One, for all of Thy love what better gift could I give?
Make me worthy of death as Thou didst Photinus,
Thou, Who for us didst sacrifice Thine only Son!”
Maurice, a glorious soldier of the Heavenly Kingdom,
Did not receive a gift from earthly rulers,
But he encouraged his company, the proud legion,
Not to bow down before the soulless idols.
His company he led to death and through death to life.
The tongue is too weak to express this rare beauty.
“Let the wasps and hornets feed on our flesh;
Nevertheless, O soldiers, we are not conquered.
Let the mosquitoes suck our blood, let them be fed.
O my brothers, we shall soon be on the other side,
Where all of those who fought for the Cross reign.
To Christ God we shall say: ‘We did not betray Thee!’”

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