Alexander, Alphius, Zosimas, Mark and their Companions
The Holy Martyrs Alexander, Alphius, Zosimas, Mark the Shepherd, Nicon, Neon, Heliodorus and the Thirty with them, in Pisidia and Phrygia
Martyr · d. c. 303–305
Commemorated 28 September
The martyrs Alexander, Alphius, Zosimas, Mark the Shepherd, Nicon, Neon, Heliodorus and some thirty companions suffered in the persecution of Diocletian (284–305) in the borderlands of Pisidia and Phrygia in Asia Minor. Their story radiates from one man: Mark, a shepherd of Pisidian Antioch, whose confession converted the soldiers who guarded him and the smiths ordered to forge his instruments of torture, and whose severed head, carried into a temple of Artemis, brought its idols down — winning a further company of young men and women for Christ and for martyrdom. They are commemorated together on September 28.
The synaxaria transmit a chain of martyrdoms, each kindled by the last, in the highlands where Pisidia and Phrygia meet, during the great persecution under Diocletian.
Mark, a shepherd of Pisidian Antioch, confessed Christ openly and was arrested. The thirty soldiers set to guard him were won to Christ by his words on the road; they confessed in their turn, and were beheaded — the tradition names the place Nicaea (see Disputed questions) — while Mark was reserved for torture.
Three brothers of the settlement of Katalytea (the manuscripts also give Kalytea and similar forms) — Alexander, Alphius and Zosimas, blacksmiths by trade — were ordered to forge the irons for Mark's torture. At the forge the iron would not run, and their hands went numb; and hearing a voice calling them to suffer with Mark, the brothers believed. After fierce tortures they were slain by molten tin (or lead, in some recensions) poured down their throats.
Mark himself, after long torment, was beheaded at Claudiopolis. When his head was carried in trophy into the temple of Artemis, the idols fell and were shattered; and among the witnesses of the sign, Nicon, Neon, Heliodorus and a company of young men and women believed, confessed, and were put to death at Maromilium (Mauromilion). So one shepherd's confession gathered a whole company — guards, smiths, and bystanders — into the choir of the martyrs.
Feast and commemoration
September 28 (church date; Old Calendar civil October 11), in the Greek and Slavic calendars alike, after Chariton the Confessor and the Prophet Baruch; the company receives a synaxarion commemoration, the day's service being Chariton's. The OCA lists them as "Martyr Alexander and 30 others in Pisidia and Phrygia."
Hymns
Troparion — Tone 4
Thy martyrs, O Lord, by their contest received incorruptible crowns from Thee our God; for possessing Thy strength they cast down the tyrants and broke the feeble insolence of the demons. By their intercessions save our souls.
Original translation from the Greek
Iconography
No fixed iconographic type of this company is transmitted; where they would be depicted, the conventions of martyr-companies apply — a group bearing crosses, a shepherd among them, the smiths with the instruments of their craft. No licence-clean pre-modern image identifiable with this company was found on Wikimedia Commons (the Menologion of Basil II has no miniature for them under September 28); they are listed among the wanted icons.
Disputed questions
- The count and the roll. The heading "Alexander and thirty others" (so the OCA) counts the company loosely; the Greek synaxaria vary in both the number (twenty-seven and thirty are both transmitted) and the order of names, and no definitive roll beyond the seven named — Alexander, Alphius, Zosimas, Mark, Nicon, Neon, Heliodorus — survives. The named members have no separate cultus; all share this common commemoration.
- The geography. The itinerary as transmitted — Pisidian Antioch, "Nicaea," Claudiopolis, Maromilium — mixes identifiable and obscure places: the famous Nicaea and Claudiopolis lie in Bithynia, far from Pisidia, and scholars suspect smaller homonymous towns of southern Asia Minor or simple corruption in the transmission. The account keeps the synaxarion's place-names without harmonising them.
- Not to be confused. The Zosimas of this company, a blacksmith martyred with his brothers, is distinct from Zosimas of Cilicia, the hermit commemorated on September 19; the Mark of this company, a shepherd, is distinct from the Apostle Mark of the Seventy kept the day before (September 27) with Aristarchus and Zenas. Alexander and Alphius likewise share their names with many other saints of the calendar.