Holy Martyr Plato
266
He lived in Ancyra in Galatia during the reign of the Emperor Maximian. Arrested for openly confessing his faith in Christ, he was subjected to many brutal tortures and, refusing after each torment to bow to the idols, was finally beheaded.
Holy Martyr Plato of Ancyra
Saint Plato was a young man of noble birth at Ancyra in Galatia in the early fourth century, the brother of the holy martyr Antiochus the physician. During the persecution of Maximian about the year 306, when he was scarcely yet of age, he was denounced to the governor Agrippinus for openly confessing the name of Christ and disturbing the celebration of the public sacrifices. Brought before the tribunal he answered the threats and the flatteries of the judge with a courage and eloquence beyond his years, declaring that he was a soldier not of the earthly emperor but of the King of heaven. After being beaten with rods, scourged with leather thongs, and laid upon a bed of red-hot iron, he was kept seven days without food in a dark prison, where the Lord appeared to encourage him; brought forth again and remaining unmoved, he was at length beheaded outside the city. The Christians of Ancyra honoured him as one of the great young martyrs of Galatia, and his name was given by Saint Theodore the Studite to his nephew, the celebrated abbot Plato of Sakkoudion, in token of the family's reverence for him.
Holy Martyr Romanus the Deacon, and the boy Barulas
Saint Romanus was a deacon of the church of Caesarea in Palestine and an exorcist who came to Antioch in the days of the persecution of Diocletian and Galerius about the year 303. Finding many Christians of the city wavering at the threat of the public sacrifices, he went about openly exhorting them not to deny the faith, and was therefore arrested and brought before the prefect Asclepiades. Ordered to offer incense to the idols and refusing, he was beaten, scourged, and at last had his tongue cut out at the root, the holy Lord granting him afterwards the grace to speak still more clearly than before, in proof of which he discoursed at length on the truth of Christ. To confound him, the prefect summoned a child of about seven years, named Barulas, and asked him whom he held to be the true God. The little boy answered without hesitation, He whom the Christians worship is the only true God, and Christ his Son is one with him, learned from his mother. He was thereupon beaten and beheaded as his mother stood watching, exhorting him to be brave; and shortly after, on 18 November, Saint Romanus was strangled in prison and so received with him the unfading crown.
Holy Martyrs Zacchaeus the Deacon of Gadara and Alphaeus the Reader of Caesarea
303
Saints Zacchaeus and Alphaeus were two clerics of the church of Palestine who suffered together at Caesarea on 17 November in the year 303, in the great persecution of Diocletian, and are commemorated by the Greek Church on this day. Zacchaeus was a deacon of the church of the city of Gadara beyond the Jordan, who, when the order of the emperor was promulgated requiring all to offer sacrifice, came of his own accord to confess his faith. Alphaeus was a reader of the church of Caesarea and a man of great learning and gentle disposition, who likewise stood forth among the wavering. Both were arrested, beaten and tortured with iron combs, kept long in prison and at last beheaded outside the city by the command of the governor Urban. The historian Eusebius, who was in Caesarea at the time, has preserved the account of their martyrdom in his Martyrs of Palestine, telling how Zacchaeus, with his feet fast in the stocks for four-and-twenty hours, sang the praises of God without ceasing, and how Alphaeus rejoiced to lay down his life with him.
Saint Odo, Abbot of Cluny
Saint Odo was born about the year 879 of a noble family of Maine in Frankish Gaul and was dedicated by his father from his infancy to the service of Saint Martin of Tours. After being trained in the cathedral school of Tours and at Paris, where he studied music and the liberal arts, he renounced the world and was tonsured a monk at the abbey of Baume in Burgundy under the abbot Berno. When Berno was called by Duke William of Aquitaine to set in order his new foundation at Cluny, Odo accompanied him, and on Berno's repose in 927 he succeeded him as the second abbot. With great gentleness and unshaken firmness he restored the strict observance of the rule of Saint Benedict, the silence, the regularity of the divine office and the practice of charity, and was called to reform many other monasteries of Gaul, Aquitaine and Italy, including Saint Paul Outside-the-Walls and Subiaco at Rome. He composed hymns, antiphons and a celebrated Life of Saint Gerald of Aurillac, treatises on morals and homilies, and on three occasions made peace between warring princes. Reposing at Tours on 18 November 942, he is honoured by the Orthodox Church among the holy fathers of the West before the schism, as one of the great founders of mediaeval monastic life.
Holy Martyr Romanus and the holy child who declared for Christ
305
“Saint Romanus was a deacon and exorcist in the Church of Caesarea in Palestine. He happened to be at Antioch in 303 when the Emperor Diocletian’s edicts for the general persecution of Christians were published. He could not bear to see so many Christian men, women and children denying their faith in the true God for fear of suffering. As they went to sacrifice to the idols, he ran up, consumed with zeal for righteousness, crying shame on them with a loud voice. He was immediately arrested and brought before the city Prefect. He faced interrogation boldly and to prove the stupidity of the pagan cult, he asked for a child to be brought in, taken at random from the crowd in the public square. Romanus enquired of the lad whether it was more sensible to worship the one and only God and Creator of the world, or the many gods of the pagans. Showing himself wiser than the pagans, the child unhesitatingly decided for the God of the Christians. The Prefect flew into a rage at being made to look ridiculous and ordered the young confessor to be put to the torture straight away in the presence of his mother. The child endured the torments without flinching but told his mother he was thirsty and wanted a drink. ‘0 my dear son’, the admirable woman answered, ‘do not drink corruptible and temporal water, but keep up your courage so as to drink living and eternal water in the Kingdom of God!’ The child was beheaded, and Saint Romanus was condemned to be burnt to death. He welcomed the sentence joyfully, and with a shining face was led unresistingly to the stake. Since the Emperor was in the city, the executioners awaited his decision before lighting the fire and the valiant Martyr exclaimed at the delay, ‘Where is the fire that is prepared for me?’ But the execution was stayed so that he could be brought before the Emperor in person. Aware that Christians rejoice over the death of a Martyr as the entrance to everlasting life, the tyrant wanted to increase the suffering of Christ’s athlete by delaying the moment of deliverance. He ordered the executioners to tear out his tongue, which Romanus freely offered, and he miraculously went on praising God and encouraging the faithful after it was cut away. After this torment, he was imprisoned for a long time in chains until the Emperor’s birthday. This was celebrated all over the Empire and a general release of prisoners was customary. But Romanus was not freed; with his feet crushed in the stocks, he was secretly strangled in his dungeon and thus received the adornment of martyrdom, as he had desired.”(Synaxarion)
Holy New Martyr Anastasius of Epirus, and Daniel, whom he converted
1750
Anastasius and his sister were Greek peasants living in Epirus under Ottoman rule. One day a band of Turks came through their village, led by Musa, the son of the local Pasha (Governor). Musa was struck by the beauty of Anastasius’ sister and tried to seize her, but Anastasius threw himself at the Turks and fought them off long enough for his sister to escape. Musa’s father had Anastasius arrested and brought before him and, impressed by his courage, attempted to convert him to Islam by many means: threats, beatings, and offers of worldly honor; but Anastasius held firm and was cast into prison.
Musa was moved by the way that Anastasius bore all these trials and temptations, and wanted to know more about the Faith that sustained him. Going secretly to Anastasius’ prison cell, he peered in and saw two young men of shining appearance with the prisoner. They vanished as soon as Musa entered. Anastasius told Musa that these were angels who guard and aid every Christian, especially when they suffer for Christ. He also explained in a simple way the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which enables His followers to set little value upon worldly things. Musa, deeply moved, threw himself at Anastasius’ feet and asked to become a Christian. Anastasius told him to wait until the proper time, because his conversion would cause his father to persecute all the Christians under his power. A few days later, in 1750, Anastasius was beheaded by order of the Pasha.
Soon after this, Musa visited the tomb of a holy Martyr and was granted a vision of Anastasius, who appeared to him encircled in light and urged him to continue on the road to Christ. Musa fled his father’s domain to the Peleponnese where he received direction in the Faith from an aged ascetic. He then traveled to Venice to be baptized without fear of reprisal by the Turks. In time he became a monk on Corfu, receiving the monastic name of Daniel. He lived there in asceticism, but the desire grew in him to taste martyrdom for Christ, so he traveled to Constantinople to declare his conversion to the Muslims. But the Christians there dissuaded him, knowing that the conversion of such a prominent Turk would, if it were known, lead to retaliation against Christians. Saint Daniel returned to Corfu, where he founded a church in honor of St Anastasius and reposed in peace.