24 August 2024 (MIA)

Macedonian Orthodox Church Calendar

The Holy Martyr Euplus

Euplus was a deacon in Catania, Sicily. Emperor Diocletian dispatched Commander Pentagurus to Sicily to exterminate any Christians he found there. Pentagurus did not find a single Christian, for the few that were there, hid from the persecutor and did not reveal themselves. Then someone accused St. Euplus of taking a book to secret Christians and reading to them. This book was the Holy Gospel. They soon brought him to court, hung that book around his neck, and led him to prison. After seven days of imprisonment and hunger, Euplus was handed over for torture. While they were beating him with iron rods, Euplus, mockingly said to the torturing judge: “O ignorant one, do you not see that because of God’s help, these tortures are for me as a cobweb? If you can, find other harsher tortures, for all of these are as toys.” Finally, they led the martyr of Christ out to the scaffold. Then St. Euplus opened the Holy Gospel and read from it to the people for a long time. Many converted to the Faith of Christ. St. Euplus was beheaded in the year 304 AD and is said to have taken up habitation in the Kingdom of Heaven. His miracle-working relics repose in a village near Naples called Vico della Batonia.

Catholic Calendar

Bartholomew the Apostle

Also known as Nathanael bar Tolomai. He was one of the Twelves Apostles. Probably a close friend of Saint Philip; his name is always mentioned in the Gospels in connection with him, and it was Philip brought Bartholomew to Jesus. May have written a gospel, now lost; it is mentioned in other writings of the time. May have preached in Asia Minor, Ethiopia, India, and Armenia; someone did, leaving early writings behind, and local tradition says it was him. He was flayed alive at Albanopolis, Armenia; relics at St Bartholomew-on-the-Tiber Church, Rome, and in the cathedral in Canterbury, England.