St Abercius, Equal-to-the-Apostles

Saints commemorated

• Saint of the day

  St Abercius, Equal-to-the-Apostles

  Abercius (†c. 167) was the second-century bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia whom the Church honours as Equal-to-the-Apostles and Wonderworker for the missionary journeys, healings, and exorcisms recorded in his Life. He is unique among the saints of this era in that a genuine artefact of his own making survives: the "Abercius inscription," the verse epitaph he composed for his tomb, rediscovered in 1883 and now in the Vatican. In veiled but unmistakable language it speaks of the Fish caught by a spotless Virgin, of bread and wine, of a journey that carried him from Rome to the Euphrates in the company of Paul — one of the oldest and richest Christian inscriptions known, and an independent witness to the faith of the sub-apostolic Church that the later legendary Life only elaborates.

• Venerable Lot of Egypt (5th c.)

• Holy Seven Youths of Ephesus

  The Seven Youths of Ephesus — Maximilian, Iamblichus, Martinian, John, Dionysius, Exacustodianus (also called Constantine), and Antoninus — were young Christians of noble family who, rather than sacrifice to the idols under the emperor Decius (c. 250), hid in a cave on Mount Ochlon, where the emperor ordered them sealed in to die. God laid them instead in a miraculous sleep of nearly two centuries; they awoke under Theodosius II (408–450), at a moment when the resurrection of the dead was being denied, so that their waking became a living proof of it. Having borne this witness they lay down and reposed. Popularly the "Seven Sleepers," they are among the few saints venerated by both Christians and Muslims, the story being retold in the Qur'an.

• Alexander of Adrianople and Companions

  Alexander, bishop of Adrianople in Thrace, was a hieromartyr of the third century who preached the Gospel boldly among the pagans of his city and turned many from idolatry. Arrested and tortured to compel him to sacrifice, he endured with such constancy that a soldier named Heraclius, watching, came to faith in Christ and was tortured and beheaded. When Alexander was afterward healed of his wounds by the grace of God, four women — Theodota, Glyceria, Anna, and Elizabeth — confessed Christ openly before the governor and denounced the idols; they were put to the sword, and the bishop Alexander was last of all beheaded, receiving with his companions the unfading crown.

British Isles and Ireland

• St. Mellon of Cardiff, 1st bishop of Rouen (314)
• St. Donatus of Fiesole (874)

Troparia & kontakia

Readings