Holy Martyr Paramon and his 370 Companions
c. 250
“Akylinus, the Governor of Bithynia in the reign of the Emperor Decius (249-51), was leaving for the hot springs at Bisaltia, when he decided to make 370 Christians from Nicomedia, who had been imprisoned on his orders, worship in the temple of Isis. On their refusal to do so, they were all beheaded. Seeing this massacre, the righteous Paramon cried out: ‘What a wicked deed to slaughter so many righteous men, and strangers moreover, as if they were animals.’ The Governor heard these words and had Paramon seized and taken with him under guard. On the road he was mistreated in various ways by the soldiers. Some of them struck him with their spears, others excised his tongue and other members, and he was finally put to death in the presence of the Governor.” (Synaxarion) Note: of the various persecutions launched by the pagan Emperors before St Constantine, the persecution under Decius was probably the fiercest and bloodiest.
Holy Martyr Paramonus and his three hundred and seventy companion martyrs
250
The Holy Martyr Paramon and the three hundred and seventy martyrs with him suffered for their faith in Christ in the year 250, during the persecution of the emperor Decius (249 to 251). The governor of the eastern regions, named Aquianus, had locked up the three hundred and seventy Christians in prison and was urging them with threats and torments to renounce Christ and offer sacrifice to the goddess Isis at her temple in Bithynia. Day after day he tortured them, hoping that by fear of death he might break their constancy.
It happened that one day, as the governor was about to offer sacrifice himself in front of the temple, a local inhabitant named Paramon, passing by, beheld the spectacle. Filled with the zeal of God, he stopped before the multitude and openly denounced the cruel governor, confessing his faith in the One True God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and rebuking the worship of dead idols. Aquianus in fury commanded that Saint Paramon's tongue be pierced with a sharpened reed and that he be tortured along with the others. The saint endured fierce torments and was beheaded together with the three hundred and seventy confessors of Christ, all of whom received the unfading crown of martyrdom on one and the same day.
Holy Martyr Philumenus
274
The Holy Martyr Philumenus suffered for Christ in the year 274 during the persecution against the Christians by the emperor Aurelian (270 to 275). He was a bread merchant in the city of Ancyra in Galatia, and being known as a devout Christian he was denounced before the governor Felix, who summoned him to court. Refusing to deny his Saviour or to offer sacrifice to idols, the saint endured many tortures with patience and joy. Felix at last commanded that great iron nails be driven into the saint's head, his hands, and his feet, and so Saint Philumenus gave up his soul to God.
In the modern era the Orthodox Church also remembers on or near this day the new hieromartyr Philumenos of Jacob's Well, an Athonite hieromonk and abbot of the monastery at Jacob's Well in Samaria, who was murdered while celebrating Vespers on 29 November 1979 by extremists who broke into the church, and was glorified as a saint by the Patriarchate of Jerusalem in 2009. Both Philumeni shine as witnesses to Christ across the centuries, the one bearing his testimony in pagan Galatia, the other amid the violence of our own age beside the well at which the Lord himself once spoke with the Samaritan woman.
Venerable Acacius of Sinai
Saint Acacius of Sinai lived during the sixth century and was a novice in a certain monastery in Asia. Coming to the monastic life as a simple, gentle youth, he placed himself under the obedience of an elder who proved to be harsh, irritable, and altogether without compassion. For nine long years Saint Acacius bore his spiritual father's beatings, insults, and mistreatment with unshaken meekness, never complaining, never answering back, and never leaving his elder, but accepting all his sufferings as a means of his own purification.
After enduring this trial faithfully unto death, the saint reposed and was buried, but the elder went on living without any sign of repentance for his cruelty. After some time the elder mentioned the death of his disciple to a great old man of the desert, who, refusing to believe that one so obedient could truly have died, went with him to the tomb and called out: Brother Acacius, are you dead? And from the tomb came the voice of the saint: How is it possible, father, for one who has performed the work of obedience to die? The elder, struck to the heart by this miracle, repented in tears and ended his days in fervent ascesis at the tomb. Saint John of the Ladder records this story in step four of the Ladder of Divine Ascent as the great example of the rewards of patient obedience.
Our Holy Father Pitirim of Egypt
4th c.
“Abba Pitirim directed a group of ascetics who led a very austere life in the arid mountains of the Thebaid. He was himself a disciple and third successor of Saint Anthony the Great (17 Jan.) in his hermitage. He ate no more than a little flour mixed with water twice a week, and so persevered in spiritual labours that he gained abundant graces from the Holy Spirit. Among other things, he taught that to each passion there corresponds a demon who tries to stir up that passion within us through different temptations. In order to get rid of these demons and of evil thoughts, Abba Pitirim said that we must first free our hearts from passions.” (Synaxarion)