Rufus and Rufianus
The Holy Martyrs Rufus and Rufianus, Brothers
Martyr
Commemorated 8 September
Rufus and Rufianus were brothers (the Greek synaxarion calls them αὐτάδελφοι, "brothers of one blood") who were martyred for Christ by beheading. Nothing further of their time or place is transmitted: they are known from a single synaxarion line and its accompanying verses, which picture Rufianus bowing beneath the sword and calling to his brother to follow without delay. They are commemorated on September 8, under the shadow of the Great Feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos.
The surviving record of these martyrs is a single notice in the Synaxarion of Constantinople, repeated in the Greek Menaion for September 8: "On the same day, the holy brothers Rufus and Rufianus were perfected by the sword." No place, date, or persecution is named, and no passion narrative survives. The synaxarion's distich for the pair supplies the one vivid detail the tradition preserves — the order of their deaths and the affection between them: "Bowing himself beneath the sword, Rufianus saith: I await thee, Rufus — delay not; follow." (Κλίνων ἑαυτὸν Ῥουφιανὸς τῷ ξίφει, Μένω σε, φησί, Ῥοῦφε, μὴ μέλλῃς, ἕπου.) The names are Latin in form (Rufus, "red-haired," with its derivative), common throughout the Roman world, so that not even a region can be inferred from them. An honest entry can say no more: two brothers confessed Christ together and died together by the sword, the younger word of the pair being a call to constancy.
Feast and commemoration
September 8 (church date; Old Calendar civil September 21), carried in the Synaxarion of Constantinople and the Greek Menaion. The day is wholly governed by the Great Feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos, and the martyrs receive no liturgical service of their own; the OCA's calendar for September 8 omits them, while the Greek synaxaria retain them — a difference of listing recorded here.
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
No pre-modern icon of the brothers has been identified. They would be depicted as two martyrs — brothers, hence commonly of like countenance — bearing crosses, with the sword of their perfection.
Disputed questions
- Not to be confused with the Apostle Rufus of the Seventy (commemorated April 8), with Rufus the obedient of the Kiev Caves (also April 8), or with other martyrs named Rufus in the calendars; the brothers of September 8 are known only from this day's notice.