Diodorus, Didymus and Diomedes of Laodicea
The Holy Martyrs Diodorus, Didymus and Diomedes, of Laodicea
Martyr
Commemorated 11 September
Diodorus, Didymus and Diomedes were martyrs of Laodicea, natives of the city in which they suffered, put to death for Christ by scourging — flogged until they died under the blows. Their commemoration, preserved in a single synaxarion line with its distich on the scourges that "flogged the error" of paganism even as they tore the martyrs' flesh, is kept on September 11.
The record of these martyrs is of the briefest kind: the synaxaria commemorate three men of Laodicea — the sources do not specify which of the cities of that name, though Laodicea in Syria (the modern Latakia) and Laodicea in Phrygia are both candidates — who confessed Christ in their own city and were beaten to death with scourges. The OCA places them in the fourth century. The Greek synaxarion verse for the day turns their manner of death into their victory: giving their flesh to the whips, Diodorus and his fellow-contestants scourged the error of the idols.
Feast and commemoration
September 11 (church date; Old Calendar civil September 24), within the afterfeast of the Nativity of the Theotokos, in both the Greek and the Slavic calendars.
Hymns
Troparion — Tone 4 (from the common of martyrs)
Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their contest received incorruptible crowns from Thee, our God; for possessing Thy strength they cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By their intercessions save our souls.
Original translation from the Greek
Iconography
The stored image is the miniature of the Menologion of Basil II (Constantinople, 985), which depicts two of the three — Diodorus and Didymus, as the Commons title and the Greek synaxarion note for the day have it — in the scenes of their martyrdom, one beaten prostrate, the other bound to the stake. Diomedes does not appear in the miniature; a portrait icon of the three would show them as three men bearing martyrs' crosses.
Disputed questions
- The names. The Greek synaxaria list the three as Diodorus, Diomedes and Didymus; the OCA and Slavic usage order them Diodorus, Didymus, Diomedes; and some older lists transmit only two names, Diodorus and Didymus. The three-name form of the received Greek and Russian calendars is followed here, with the variance recorded.
- Not to be confused with other martyrs of these common names: Didymus the soldier of Alexandria (April 5/27), martyred with the virgin Theodora — whose namesake, Theodora of Alexandria the penitent, is by coincidence the principal saint of this same day — and Diomedes the physician of Tarsus (August 16). This Diodorus is likewise not to be confused with the Diodorus martyred with the deacon Rhodopianus at Aphrodisias in Caria under Diocletian (May 3 in Greek usage, April 29 in Slavonic), who was stoned rather than scourged and had a single companion.