Holy Seven Youths of Ephesus
The seven holy youths of Ephesus, Maximilian, Iamblichus, Martinian, John, Dionysius, Exacustodianus and Antoninus, were the sons of distinguished citizens of the city in the third century. Brought up together as Christians, they served in the imperial guard. When the emperor Decius (249 to 251) came to Ephesus and ordered every citizen to offer sacrifice to the idols, the youths were denounced as Christians. Brought before Decius, they confessed their faith and removed the soldiers' belts and insignia. The emperor, at first astonished by their youth and beauty, gave them time to reconsider while he continued his journey, and the seven friends withdrew to a cave on Mount Ochlon outside the city. There they devoted themselves to fasting and prayer, sending the youngest, Iamblichus, in disguise to buy bread for them. Hearing on his return that Decius had come back and was searching for them, they prepared to confess their faith and lay down to rest after partaking of bread and water. The Lord, foreseeing that their confession would later strengthen many, sent upon them a deep and miraculous sleep. Decius, learning where they were hidden, ordered the entrance of the cave to be sealed up with great stones, that they might die of hunger. Two secret Christians at his court, Theodore and Rufinus, recorded the names and the manner of their suffering on lead tablets and concealed these among the stones. Almost two centuries later, in the reign of Saint Theodosius the Younger (408 to 450), at a time when some were denying the resurrection of the body, a landowner ordered the stones removed for use in building a sheepfold. The youths awoke as if from a single night's rest, sent Iamblichus once more for bread, and were astonished when he returned to tell them that the city was now Christian and crosses were raised over its gates. The bishop, the magistrates and the emperor came to the cave and heard their testimony; they then took leave of the elders and lay down again, this time falling asleep in the Lord. Their relics, transferred to Constantinople, became a sign of the resurrection.
Holy Venerable Martyr Eudocia of Persia
Saint Eudocia was a native of Anatolia in Asia Minor and lived in the fourth century. She was carried off into Persia in a great raid by the army of King Sapor (Shapur II), together with nine thousand other Christians whom the Persians took as captives in their campaigns against the Roman frontier. Of all the captives, Eudocia stood out for her piety and her thorough knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. In the cities and prisons of Persia she instructed her fellow prisoners, encouraging them not to lose heart amid hardships and to keep the confession of Christ. Beyond her own people, she preached to the Persian women among whom she lived, leading many of them to belief in the Saviour and to baptism. Word of her teaching reached the Persian authorities, who arrested her and demanded that she renounce Christ and offer sacrifice to fire. She refused, and after enduring various tortures she was beheaded for confessing the name of the Lord. The Church receives her with the title of venerable martyr both because of her ascetic and prayerful life in captivity and because of her witness unto blood, and her memory is kept on this day in both the Greek and the Slavonic synaxaria.
Translation of the Relics of Saint Cornelius of Pereyaslavl
Saint Cornelius of Pereyaslavl, in the world Konon, was the son of a Ryazan merchant of the seventeenth century. As a young man he left his father's house and lived for five years as a novice under the elder Paul in the Lukianov hermitage near Pereyaslavl-Zalessky. He then transferred to the Pereyaslavl monastery of Saints Boris and Gleb on the Sands, where he was tonsured a monk with the name Cornelius. From that day until his death he kept a vow of complete silence, so that the brethren took him to be deaf and dumb. He spent thirty years in continual labour, in fasting, vigil and obedience, and only as he approached the end of his life did the elders learn his speech and discover the depth of his prayer. Before his repose he made his confession to the priest Father Barlaam, received the Holy Mysteries and was clothed in the great schema. He fell asleep on 22 July 1693 and was buried in the monastery. Nine years later, when a new church was being built on the site, the workmen uncovered his relics and found them incorrupt. In 1705, when Saint Demetrius, Metropolitan of Rostov, came to the monastery, he venerated the relics and ordered them to be placed in the new church. The translation of the relics of Saint Cornelius to that church is commemorated by the Church on 4 August.