Martyrs Eutropius, Cleonicus and Basiliscus

Saints commemorated

Saint of the day

Martyrs Eutropius, Cleonicus and Basiliscus

Eutropius, Cleonicus and Basiliscus (†c. 308) were three martyrs of Amasea in Pontus, fellow-soldiers, kinsmen and companions of the great-martyr Theodore the Recruit (Tyron) — Basiliscus, the tradition holds, being Theodore's own nephew, and Eutropius and Cleonicus his brothers-in-arms. Left in prison after Theodore's death by fire, they were brought before the governor Asclepiodotus in the last great persecution, and neither flattery, bribes, nor torture could move them from Christ. When they were led to sacrifice, the idols were shattered — the tradition says — at Eutropius's prayer. Eutropius and Cleonicus were crucified at Amasea, in imitation of their Lord; Basiliscus was held back and put to death later at Comana, where his own feast is kept on May 22. Their memory is kept together on March 3.

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An Unknown Girl in Alexandria (?)
Basiliscus of Comana

Basiliscus (†c. 308) was a young Christian of the Pontic country, nephew of the great-martyr Theodore the Recruit, who confessed Christ at Amasea together with Eutropius and Cleonicus and was left alive in prison when they were crucified. Driven at last in iron sandals studded with nails to Comana in Pontus, he prayed beside a withered plane-tree that put out leaves while a spring broke from its root, saw the idols of the city fall at his word, and was beheaded, his body thrown into the river and recovered by the faithful. Over his grave outside Comana a martyrium arose — and it was there, ninety-nine years later, that John Chrysostom, dying on the forced march into his last exile, was met in a night vision by Basiliscus with the words, "Take courage, brother John; tomorrow we shall be together." Chrysostom died the next day and was buried beside him.

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Theodoretus of Antioch

Theodoretus (†c. 362) — Theodoret the Presbyter — was a priest of the church of Antioch and keeper of its sacred vessels, martyred under Julian the Apostate. When Julian's uncle, also named Julian, Count of the East, came to Antioch to seize and plunder the treasures of the Christian churches and shut their doors, the priest Theodoret refused to abandon his flock, gathering and strengthening the faithful in secret. Arrested and brought before the Count, he confessed Christ boldly, denounced the emperor's apostasy, and endured the rack, the tearing of his flesh, and burning torches without flinching, foretelling the wretched deaths that soon overtook both the Count and the emperor. He was beheaded about the year 362. An Antiochian martyr of the last pagan persecution, he is commemorated on March 3.

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Zeno and Zoilus

Zeno and Zoilus are two saints named together in the Byzantine synaxaria on March 3, of whom the tradition transmits almost nothing beyond that they lived righteously and reposed in peace while still in the world — that is, they were not martyrs nor, seemingly, monastics, but laymen glorified in an ordinary life of piety. No account of their lives, place, or century survives; they are known from a single synaxarion line.

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British Isles and Ireland

St. Nonna (Non), mother of St. David of Wales (6th C)
St. Winwaloe, abbot (6th C)
St. Foila of Kilfaile (6th C)
St. Sacer, abbot of Saggard, Dublin (7th C)
St. Cele-Christ, hermit and bishop (c.728)
St. Lamalisse, hermit of Arran (7th C)

Readings

6th Hour

Isaiah 1.19-2.3

¹⁹If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: ²⁰But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. ²¹How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers. ²²Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water: ²³Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them. ²⁴Therefore saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies: ²⁵And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin: ²⁶And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city. ²⁷Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness. ²⁸And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the LORD shall be consumed. ²⁹For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen. ³⁰For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water. ³¹And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them. ¹The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. ²And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. ³And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

Vespers

Genesis 1.14-23

¹⁴And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: ¹⁵And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. ¹⁶And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. ¹⁷And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, ¹⁸And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. ¹⁹And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. ²⁰And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. ²¹And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. ²²And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. ²³And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

Proverbs 1.20-33

²⁰Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets: ²¹She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying, ²²How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? ²³Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. ²⁴Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; ²⁵But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: ²⁶I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; ²⁷When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. ²⁸Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: ²⁹For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD: ³⁰They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. ³¹Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. ³²For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. ³³But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.

Troparia & kontakia

Apolytikion — Tone 4 (common of a martyr)

Thy martyr Basiliscus, O Lord, has received from Thee, our God, an incorruptible crown for the contest he endured; for, having Thy strength, he cast down the tyrants and broke in pieces the powerless insolence of the demons. At his supplications, O Christ God, save our souls.

Kontakion — Tone 8

Shod in iron and bound to a withered tree, thou didst pray, and the dry wood put forth leaves and a spring of living water broke from its root; wherefore, when thy head was struck off at Comana, thou didst become thyself a fountain of healings, O Basiliscus, and a comfort to the exiled.

Kontakion — Tone 2

As three unconquered soldiers of the Trinity, bound together in the one faith, you trod down the pride of the enemy and were lifted up upon the Cross with Christ; wherefore, O Eutropius, Cleonicus and Basiliscus, you have received the unfading crown.

Kontakion — Tone 2

Guarding the treasure of the true faith, O wise Theodoretus, you counted the wealth of the world as nothing; and when the apostate stretched out his hand against the Church, you were revealed a fearless priest and martyr, laying down your head for Christ. Wherefore we honour your holy memory.

Troparion — Tone 4

Your martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received from you, our God, the crowns of incorruption; for, armed with your strength, they cast down the tyrants and shattered the powerless insolence of the demons. By their supplications, O Christ God, save our souls.

Troparion — Tone 4

Your martyr Theodoretus, O Lord, in his contest received from you, our God, the crown of incorruption; for, armed with your strength, he cast down the persecutors and shattered the powerless insolence of the demons. By his supplications, O Christ God, save our souls.

Troparion — Tone 8

O God of our fathers, who deal with us ever according to your gentleness: take not your mercy from us, but by the prayers of your righteous ones Zeno and Zoilus, guide our life in peace.

Saints commemorated