Eusebius and Charalampus
The Holy Martyrs Eusebius and Charalampus, who were perfected by fire
Martyr
Commemorated 31 May — Martyrdom by fire, with the martyrs of May 30
Eusebius and Charalampus were two Christians of Nicomedia who refused to sacrifice to the idols and were burned alive. The Greek synaxarion joins their memory to that of the martyrs commemorated the previous day — Romanus, Teletius (or Meletius) and Christina — with whom they were put to death in the same fire, and remembers them in a single couplet: that the fire of their zeal kindled two contenders before the fire that consumed them. Beyond the place, the manner of death and the company, nothing of their history is transmitted; not even the reign in which they suffered is recorded.
What the synaxarion transmits
The notice of these two martyrs is one of the shortest in the fixed calendar, and honesty requires that its brevity be respected. It reports four things. They were of Nicomedia — the great city of Bithynia which, as the eastern imperial residence under Diocletian, became the scene of some of the most numerous martyrdoms of the persecutions and gave the calendar whole companies of martyrs. They were arrested for refusing to sacrifice to idols. They were perfected by fire. And they suffered together with the martyrs Romanus, Teletius (or Meletius) and Christina, whose own commemoration falls on May 30, the day before.
The Greek synaxaristes states plainly that the date of their martyrdom is not known. The association with Nicomedia and with a group execution by burning makes the Diocletianic persecution (303–311) the natural setting, and the fourth century is assigned here on that ground; but the ascription is an inference from the circumstances and not a transmitted date, and an earlier third-century persecution cannot be excluded.
Their place in the calendar
Their appearance on May 31 rather than on May 30 with the rest of the company is the ordinary result of how synaxaria grew: a group of martyrs entered under one day, and two names of the same group entered again under the following day from a different source, without the compilers reconciling the two notices. The Church has kept both entries rather than suppressing either, so that the same fire is commemorated on two consecutive days — which is why these two are always described in the Greek books by reference to the preceding day's martyrs.
The names
The two names are among the most transparently Christian in the martyrologies, and the Greek notices remark on it. Eusebius (Εὐσέβιος), from eusebēs, means "the pious," "the reverent" — the name of the historian of Caesarea and of many bishops and martyrs. Charalampus (Χαράλαμπος), from chara, "joy," and lampō, "to shine," means "he who shines with joy," or "radiant with gladness." Read against a death by burning, the second name furnished the hymnographers with their one image: men who shone with joy in the flame that was meant to consume them.
Feast and commemoration
May 31 (church date; Old Calendar civil June 13), the last day of the church month of May. The commemoration is Greek in its transmission and does not appear in the Slavonic and Russian calendars of the day, which keep the Apostle Hermas, Hermias of Comana and Philosophus of Alexandria. No proper office is appointed for Eusebius and Charalampus; where they are commemorated liturgically, the service is sung from the common of two or more martyrs, and their memory is joined to that of the martyrs of the preceding day.
Hymns
Troparion — Tone 4 (common of martyrs)
O holy martyrs, who fought the good fight and received your crowns, intercede with the Lord that he may have mercy on our souls.
Original translation from the Greek
Iconography
There is no distinct iconography of Eusebius and Charalampus. Where a menologion rank includes them, they are painted as the calendar paints anonymous or little-known martyr pairs: two men in tunic and mantle, one older and one younger, standing side by side with the cross in the right hand, identified only by the inscription of their names; and where the manner of death is shown at all, they stand within flames — the type of the martyrs "perfected by fire," which is also the way the martyrs of Nicomedia are shown collectively. No pre-1900 icon of this pair has been identified for this collection, and searches under the name return only the widely-painted hieromartyr Haralambos of Magnesia, whose images must not be used here.
Disputed questions
- Not to be confused with Haralambos of Magnesia. The much better-known bearer of this name is the Hieromartyr Haralambos of Magnesia (February 10), the aged priest of Thessaly martyred under Septimius Severus, whose cultus is very widespread in the Greek world; almost every modern image or church dedicated to a "St Charalampos" is his. The Nicomedian martyr of May 31 is distinct, and has no independent cultus.
- Teletius or Meletius. The companion named with Romanus and Christina on May 30 appears as Teletius (Τελέτιος) and as Meletius (Μελέτιος) in the transmission; the variant is a copying matter and is recorded rather than resolved. May 30 is authored separately in this collection, and the two notices should be cross-checked when it is written.
- A single commemoration or two. Because the same martyrdom is entered on two days, some calendars print Eusebius and Charalampus as an appendix to the May 30 notice rather than as a commemoration of May 31. The Greek synaxaristes gives them their own May 31 entry, which this collection follows.