Martyrs Sergius and Bacchus in Syria

Saints commemorated

• Saint of the day

  

  Martyrs Sergius and Bacchus in Syria

  Sergius and Bacchus (†c. 303–305) were Roman officers of high rank and favourites of the emperor, exposed as Christians when they refused to enter the temple of Jupiter. Stripped of the insignia of their rank, dressed in women's clothing, and paraded through the city in mockery, they were sent to the Euphrates frontier of Syria, where Bacchus was scourged to death at Barbalissos and Sergius, forced to run in boots pierced with nails, was beheaded at Rasafa. Their joint cultus — the two are never separated — became one of the greatest of the Christian East: Rasafa grew into the pilgrimage city of Sergiopolis, the Arab tribes took Sergius as their patron, and Justinian raised their church in Constantinople, the "Little Hagia Sophia." They are commemorated together on October 7.

• Holy Hieromartyr Polychronius (4th c.)

  Polychronius was a priest of the fourth century, remembered as a farmer's son whose love of labour and ascetic life, shown in the vineyards near Constantinople, won him the means to build a church and, in time, ordination to the priesthood. Tradition associates him with the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea and makes him a victim of its enemies: he was cut down by Arians at the altar of his church. He is commemorated on October 7.

• The Ninety-nine Fathers of Crete (date unknown)

  The Ninety-nine Holy Fathers were ascetics of the island of Crete, commemorated together on October 7. The synaxarion transmits no date and no names beyond their number; the tradition of Crete makes their chief and elder the hermit John, a wonderworker who prayed on his knees until he could no longer walk upright, and who was shot with an arrow by a hunter who took the crawling figure for a beast. The company, bound by their vow to one life, are said to have died with him — the ninety-eight following their elder in death on the same day. Their memory is kept with devotion on Crete, where the caves and gorges of their struggle are venerated to this day.

• Julian and Caesarius of Terracina

  Julian the presbyter and Caesarius the deacon were martyred together at Terracina on the coast of Italy south of Rome — the Byzantine calendars transmit the first century. Caesarius, imprisoned for denouncing the pagan gods and their human sacrifice, was being dragged to the temple of Apollo when the temple collapsed on its priests; arrested at about the same time, the priest Julian was condemned with him, and the two were sewn into a sack and drowned in the sea. Their bodies came ashore and were buried by Christians; the relics of Caesarius were later taken to Rome, where churches still bear his name. They are commemorated together on October 7.

• Pelagia of Tarsus

  Pelagia of Tarsus (†c. 290) was a maiden of a wealthy pagan house in Tarsus of Cilicia who came to faith in Christ from Christian companions, vowed her virginity, and refused the hand of the son and heir of the emperor Diocletian. Baptised in the mountains by the fugitive bishop Linus at a spring that sprang up for the purpose, she was denounced by her own mother, and was condemned to be roasted alive in a heated brazen bull. She entered the instrument giving thanks, and her body was consumed like melted myrrh; the bones that remained were guarded, the tradition says, by lions until the bishop could bury them, and a church rose over her relics once the persecutions ended. She is one of three early saints of the name Pelagia and must not be confused with the two of October 8.

British Isles and Ireland

• Holy Martyr Cynog (492)
• St. Dubtach, bishop of Armagh (513)
• Holy Martyr Princess Osyth of Crich (c.700)
• St. Helanus, Irish missionary in Gaul (5th C)

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