Wednesday, 14 October 2026

The holy martyrs Nazarius, Gervase, Protase, and Celsus suffered for Christ in the time of the emperor Nero. Nazarius was born at Rome of mixed parentage, the son of a Christian mother named Perpetua and an unbelieving Jewish father named Africanus. His mother taught him secretly the things of the faith, and after her death he was instructed and baptised by Bishop Linus, the successor of the Apostle Peter at Rome.

From his youth, Nazarius gave himself to the service of the gospel, distributing his patrimony to the poor and travelling through the cities of Italy and Gaul to encourage the brethren and to preach Christ. Coming to Milan, he visited in prison the holy twins Gervase and Protase, sons of the holy martyr Vitalis and his wife Valeria, who had been imprisoned for their confession of Christ. So great was his love for them that he longed to share their sufferings.

Driven from Milan after a beating, Nazarius made his way to Gaul, where he laboured fruitfully in the conversion of pagans. At Cimiez, near the modern Nice, he baptised a young boy named Celsus, whose Christian mother had given him over to the saint's care, and the child became his constant companion. Returning to Milan to renew his fellowship with Gervase and Protase, Nazarius and Celsus were arrested and brought before the prefect, and at the order of Nero they were beheaded together. Soon afterwards, Gervase and Protase were also taken from prison and executed.

Their bodies, secretly buried by the faithful, lay hidden until the time of Saint Ambrose of Milan, who in the late fourth century by divine revelation discovered the relics of Gervase and Protase, and a little later those of Nazarius and Celsus, finding them incorrupt and bathed in fresh blood. Ambrose translated them with great solemnity, and the Church has honoured the four together ever since as the early martyrs of Milan.

Saint Cosmas the Hymnographer, called also Cosmas of Jerusalem and Cosmas the Melodist, was born in Damascus toward the end of the seventh century and was orphaned in his early childhood. He was taken into the household of the noble Sergius, the father of Saint John of Damascus, who raised him as a foster brother to his own son. So strong was the bond between the two boys that they shared one heart in their love of Christ and in their common pursuit of every kind of learning.

Their teacher was a learned monk from Calabria, also named Cosmas, who had been delivered by Sergius from slavery to the Saracens. Under him the foster brothers were instructed in grammar, philosophy, music, geometry, and theology, and were grounded above all in the Scriptures and the holy fathers. When their elderly tutor in time desired to retire, John and Cosmas led him with affection to the Lavra of Saint Sabbas the Sanctified in the Judean wilderness, and not many years later they came thither themselves and took the angelic habit.

In the great Lavra Cosmas devoted his whole strength to prayer, to the divine services, and to the writing of hymns. With his foster brother John he is reckoned the foremost hymnographer of the later Greek Church. To his hand are owed the canons of Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday, the canons of Holy Week, the great canon of the Nativity of Christ, and many other odes and hymns that are still sung throughout the Orthodox world.

In 743 he was raised, against his own wishes, to the bishopric of Maiuma, the port of Gaza. There he tended his flock with humility and with care, defended the holy icons against the iconoclasts, and continued to compose hymns until his repose in great old age. The Greek calendar keeps his memory on 14 October, while the Slavonic books commemorate him on 12 October.