Hieromartyr Patrick, bishop of Prusa, and three priests with him
‘Saint Patrick was Bishop of Prusa, a city in Bythinia (the present-day Brusa or Bursa). Because of his Christian faith, he was brought before Julius (or Julian) the Consul, who in his attempts to persuade Patrick to worship as he himself did, declared that thanks was owed to the gods for providing the hot springs welling up from the earth for the benefit of men. Saint Patrick answered that thanks for this was owed to our Lord Jesus Christ, and explained that when He, Who is God, created the earth, He made it with both fire and water, and the fire under the earth heats the water which wells up, producing hot springs; he then explained that there is another fire, which awaits the ungodly. Because of this, he was cast into the hot springs, but it was the soldiers who cast him in, and not he, who were harmed by the hot water. After this St Patrick was beheaded with the presbyters Acacius, Menander, and Polyaenus. Most likely this was during the reign of Diocletian (284-305).’ (Great Horologion)
Hieromartyr Patrick, bishop of Prussa, and his companions
Saint Patrick was bishop of the city of Prussa in Bithynia in Asia Minor and laboured fearlessly to turn the inhabitants from idolatry to the worship of the true God. With him are commemorated the three priests Acacius, Menander and Polyaenus, who stood beside him in the work of preaching and in the hour of suffering. They are believed to have suffered during the persecutions of the early fourth century, most likely in the reign of Diocletian.
Brought before the city's prefect, Julius, who was on his way to take the medicinal hot baths, the four were led after him in iron chains. When questioned, Saint Patrick freely confessed Christ as the one true God and explained, by way of a sober natural reasoning, that the very fires beneath the earth which heated those waters had been ordered by the Creator's hand and not by the false gods to whom they were ascribed. The enraged prefect ordered him to be cast into the boiling springs, but the saint emerged unharmed while drops of the scalding water that splashed out injured several of his persecutors. Refusing still to sacrifice to the idols, Saint Patrick and his three companions were beheaded and so received their martyric crowns together. Together with them is also commemorated the holy martyr Theotima of Nicomedia.
Holy Martyr Theotima of Nicomedia
Saint Theotima was a Christian woman of Nicomedia in Bithynia who suffered for Christ at the very beginning of the fourth century, about the year 311, in the closing years of the great persecutions launched by Diocletian and continued under his successors. Together with the holy hieromartyr Patrick of Prussa and his fellow priests, with whom her name is regularly joined in the synaxaria, she is numbered among those who freely laid down their lives in the cause of the Gospel.
Brought before the magistrates of the city, she boldly confessed her faith in Christ, refused to offer sacrifice to the idols, and after enduring tortures with great courage was put to death by the sword. Her name is preserved in the older Greek menologia and in the lists of the martyrs of Nicomedia, where she is honoured among the multitude of Christians who in that city sealed their confession with their blood.
Saint John the New, martyr of Bulgaria
Saint John, called the New, was a young Bulgarian who suffered for Christ in the eighteenth century during the time of the Ottoman yoke. He was born about the year 1775 in a Bulgarian village to pious Orthodox parents and was raised in the fear of God. While still a youth he was taken into service in a Turkish household and, under threat and persuasion, was for a time made to outwardly profess Islam, although in his heart he remained faithful to Christ.
Repenting bitterly of his denial, he sought out a spiritual father, made full confession, and resolved to wash away his fall by the open confession of Christ. Going boldly into the streets in his Christian clothing, he proclaimed before the Turks that Jesus Christ is the only true God and that he himself was a Christian. He was at once seized, examined, and after refusing to return to the religion he had left, was tortured and beheaded in 1784, at the age of about nineteen, receiving the crown of martyrdom. He is honoured among the new martyrs of the Balkans, his memory being kept on 19 May, the date of his sufferings, with another commemoration on 5 March.
Venerable Cornelius, abbot of Komel
Saint Cornelius was born about 1455 to the noble family of Kriukov; his brother Lukian served at the court of the Great Prince of Moscow. Drawn from his youth to the monastic life, he was tonsured at the Saint Cyril of White Lake Monastery, where he laboured for many years copying books and serving the brethren in silent obedience. After a long pilgrimage to Rostov, Novgorod and Tver, he settled in 1497 in the dense Komel forest near Vologda, where he built himself a small cell.
Soon disciples gathered around him. In 1501 he built a wooden church in honour of the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple, and as the number of brethren increased he raised in 1512 a stone church on the same dedication. He drew up for his community a written rule, based on those of Saint Joseph of Volokolamsk and Saint Nil of Sora; it was the third monastic rule composed by a Russian saint. Saint Cornelius was renowned for his fasting, his almsgiving in time of famine, and his fatherly care of the brethren. Many of his disciples were themselves glorified as saints, among them Gennadius of Liubimograd, Cyril of New Lake, Herodion of Iloezersk, Adrian of Poshekhonye, and Cassian of Komel. He reposed at the age of eighty-two on 19 May 1537.