June 21 / June 8

The Holy Martyr Julian of Tarsus in Cilicia (305)

Julian was of noble and senatorial origin. He lived in Tarsus in Cilicia and suffered during the reign of Diocletian. Even though he was only eighteen years of age when he was subjected to torture for the Faith, St. Julian was sufficiently educated and strengthened in Christian piety. The imperial deputy led him from town to town for an entire year, torturing him and all the while trying to persuade him to deny Christ. Julian’s mother followed her son at a distance. When the deputy seized Julian’s mother and sent her to counsel her son to deny Christ, she spoke to him for three days in prison, giving him the opposite advice, teaching him and encouraging him not to lose heart but to go to his death with thanksgiving and courage. The torturers then sewed Julian in a sack with sand, scorpions and serpents and cast the sack into the sea, and Julian’s mother also died under torture. His relics were thrown onto the shore by the waves, and the faithful translated them to Alexandria and buried them honorably in the year 305. St. Julian’s relics were later translated to Antioch. St. John Chrysostom himself delivered a eulogy on the holy martyr Julian. “From the mouth of the martyr,” Chrysostom said, “proceeded a holy voice, and
together with the voice a light emanated brighter than the rays of the sun.” Further, he added: “Take anyone, be it a madman or one possessed, and bring him to the grave of this saint, where the relics of the martyr repose, and you will see how he (the demon) without fail will leap out and flee as from a burning fire.” It is obvious from these words how numerous must have been the miracles that had taken place at the grave of St. Julian.

The Venerable Julius, priest, of Novara, and his brother St. Julian, deacon (5th c.)

Julius and Julian were brothers from the Greek province of Mirmidonia. From childhood they were reared in Christianity with the vow that they would always live in chastity and serve the Church. Julius was a presbyter and Julian a deacon. They received a decree from Emperor Theodosius the Younger to destroy pagan temples and build Christian churches throughout the empire. Like two apostles, these two brothers con- verted non-Christians into Christians in the East and the West and built churches. They built more than  a hundred churches during their lifetime. They reposed peacefully in the Lord near Milan. The inhabitants of Milan invoke the help of St. Julius against wolves.

The Holy Martyr Archil II, King of Georgia

Archil was the son of King Stephen and the grandson of the great Georgian King Wachtang. King Archil, a great Christian and a defender of Christianity, was tortured by the Moslems and beheaded for Christ on March 20, 744. He was eighty years old when he suffered for the Lord and took up his habitation in blessed eternity.

The Holy Martyr Luarsab II, King of Kartli in Georgia

Luarsab’s father, George X, suffered for the Faith and was poisoned by a Persian Shah. Luarsab, however, was cast into prison near Shiraz, where he languished for seven years. Then, by order of Shah Abbas I, he was hanged in prison with two of his servants on June 21, 1622. A heavenly light was seen over his grave.

• Hieromartyr Tertius (Terence) apostle of the Seventy, bishop of Iconium (1st ).
• Cormac of the Sea, abbot, of Durrow Monastery (Ireland) (ca. 590).
• Raoul (Rudolph or Ralph), abbot, and archbishop of Bourges (Gaul) (866).
• Martyr Aphrodisius in Cilicia.
• Martyr Theodore, right-believing prince of Starodub (1330).
• New Martyr Nicetas of Nisyros, near Rhodes, at Chios (1732).
• New Hiero-confessor George (Lavrov), archimandrite, of Kaluga (1932).
• New Hieromartyr Jonah (Sankov), hieromonk, of Alpatievo (Moscow) (1938).
• Uncovering of the relics (1996) of Maximus the Greek, of Russia (1556).
• (Greek : Martyr Julian and his wife Basilissa, and with them Martyrs Celsius, his mother Marcianilla, Anastasius, the priest Anthony, seven brothers, and twenty prison guards, of Antinoe in Egypt [283-305]).

HYMN OF PRAISE

Saints Julius and Julian

When Julius and his brother Julian
Had built their ninety-ninth church
To the Most-high God,
Julian constructed a tomb
For his brother, the holy Julius.
And when he showed his brother the grave,
Julius meekly said to him:
“Prepare yourself, my brother in the flesh.
This grave was built for you.
Prepare yourself to go to God
Before your brother, the sinful Julius.”
And God designated Julius
To build yet a hundredth church
On a certain isolated island.
As the most glorious Julius said, so it happened.
The younger brother reposed before the older brother,
And the older brother added the hundredth church.
And when he built the hundredth on the island,
Then he also took up his habitation in eternity

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