Monday, 14 December 2026

Martyrs Thyrsus, Leucis, Callinicus

Monday of the 29th week after Pentecost

246 days after Pascha · Tone 3 · Liturgy · Nativity Fast

Saints commemorated

Holy Martyr Drusus and his companions Zosimus and Theodore

The Holy Martyrs Drusus, Zosimus and Theodore suffered for Christ at Antioch in Syria during the early persecutions of the Church. Drusus is named in the Greek synaxaria of this day together with Zosimus and Theodore as those who, refusing to offer sacrifice to idols, were brought before the magistrates and confessed Christ openly. They were subjected to fierce tortures, beaten and cast into prison, and finally, persevering in the Faith, gave up their souls to God by the sword. Their memory has been preserved by the Church together with the more famous martyrs Thyrsus, Leucius and Callinicus on this day, joining them in the chorus of those who through suffering at the hands of pagan authorities bore witness to the Lord at the dawn of the third century.

Holy Martyrs Philemon, Apollonius, Arianus and Theotychus

“During the reign of Diocletian (284-305), the Governor of Antinoe in the Thebaid of Upper Egypt was Arian, a fierce persecutor who had sent many Christians to a violent death, among them Saints Timothy and Maura (see May 3) and Saint Sabine (Mar. 16). When he had imprisoned thirty-seven Christians for their confession of faith, one of them, named Apollonius, a reader of the Church, lost his courage at the sight of the instruments of torture, and thought how he might escape torments without denying Christ. He gave money to Philemon, a flute-player and a pagan, that he might put on Apollonius’ clothes and offer sacrifices before Arian, so that all would think Apollonius to have done the Governor’s will, and he might be released. Philemon agreed to this, but when the time came to offer sacrifice, enlightened by divine grace, he declared himself a Christian instead. He and Apollonius, who also confessed Christ when the fraud was exposed, were both beheaded. Before beheading them, Arian had commanded that they be shot with arrows, but while they remained unharmed, Arian himself was wounded by one of the arrows; Saint Philemon foretold that after his martyrdom, Arian would be healed at his tomb. When this came to pass, Arian, the persecutor who had slain so many servants of Christ, himself believed in Christ and was baptized with four of his body-guards. Diocletian heard of this and had Arian and his body-guards brought to him. For their confession of Christ, they were cast into the sea, and received the crown of life everlasting.” (Great Horologion)

Holy Martyrs Thyrsus, Leucius and Callinicus

The Holy Martyrs Thyrsus, Leucius and Callinicus suffered for Christ at Apollonia in Bithynia about 250 under the emperor Decius and his governor Cumbricius. Saint Leucius, a noble citizen, came forward of his own accord to rebuke the governor for the cruelty of the persecution; for this he was tortured and beheaded. Saint Thyrsus, who was not yet baptised, was so moved by his courage that he too professed Christ openly. He endured many torments, being scourged, sawn at and cast into the sea, but each time he was preserved by the power of God; brought to the temple of Apollo by the persecutors, he prayed and the idol fell down and was shattered. After his prayer he was found worthy of holy baptism and chrismation by the bishop Phileas. He was finally martyred by being placed in a coffer and sawn through with a great saw, but the saw, though dragged by many hands, would not cut him; at his prayer he gave up his soul. Saint Callinicus, a pagan priest, witnessing these wonders confessed Christ before all and was beheaded for his confession. Their memory is kept on this day in both East and West.

Saint Hybald of Lindsey

Saint Hybald, also called Higbald or Hygbald, was a holy abbot of Lindsey in Anglo-Saxon England in the seventh century. The Venerable Bede in his Ecclesiastical History records him as a man of great holiness and abstinence, friend of Saint Egbert and Saint Chad, and abbot of an unnamed monastery in the kingdom of Lindsey, the western part of present-day Lincolnshire. After the manner of the Celtic-Northumbrian fathers he laboured in solitude, prayer and the strict observance of the monastic rule, was famed for his spiritual discernment and was sought out for counsel by his contemporaries. He reposed in peace about 690 and was buried at the place that bears his name to this day, Hibaldstow ("Hybald's tomb") in Lincolnshire, where his shrine became a centre of pilgrimage. Several other Lincolnshire churches are dedicated to him, witness to his veneration in the region, and his memory is preserved among the Orthodox saints of the British Isles on this day.

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Hebrews — Hebrews 3.5-11, 17-19

⁵And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; ⁶But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. ⁷Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, ⁸Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: ⁹When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. ¹⁰Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. ¹¹So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) ¹⁷But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? ¹⁸And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? ¹⁹So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Mark — Mark 8.11-21

¹¹And the Pharisees came forth, and began to question with him, seeking of him a sign from heaven, tempting him. ¹²And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, Why doth this generation seek after a sign? verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be given unto this generation. ¹³And he left them, and entering into the ship again departed to the other side.

¹⁴Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf. ¹⁵And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod. ¹⁶And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have no bread. ¹⁷And when Jesus knew it, he saith unto them, Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? perceive ye not yet, neither understand? have ye your heart yet hardened? ¹⁸Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember? ¹⁹When I brake the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They say unto him, Twelve. ²⁰And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said, Seven. ²¹And he said unto them, How is it that ye do not understand?