25 October 2022 (MIA)
Macedonian Orthodox Church Calendar
The Holy Martyrs Tarachus, Probus and Andronicus
Tarachus was born in Syrian Claudiopolis, Probus in Pamphylian Side and Andronicus was the son of an eminent citizen of Ephesus. They were all three martyred together by the proconsul, Hymerius Maximus, in the time of the Emperor Diocletian (284-305). Tarachus was sixty-five years old when he was martyred. When the proconsul asked him three times for his name, he answered all three times: ‘I am a Christian. ‘They were first beaten with rods, then, all bloody and wounded, thrown into prison. After that, they were brought out again for further torture. When the proconsul urged Probus to deny Christ, promising him honours from the Emperor and his own friendship, holy Probus replied: ‘I neither desire imperial honours nor seek your friendship.’ When he put St Andronicus to even greater physical torture, Christ’s young martyr replied: ‘My body is before you; do with it what you will.’ After long-drawn-out torture in various places, these three holy martyrs were thrown into the theatre before the wild beasts. Before them, others were torn to pieces by the animals in this same theatre, but the beasts would not touch the saints; both the bear and the ferocious lioness fawned around them. Seeing this, many people believed in Christ the Lord and cried out against the proconsul. Wild with anger and more ferocious than the beasts, the proconsul ordered soldiers to go in and cut Christ’s soldiers to pieces, and their bodies lay mingled with the bodies of the others who had been slain. Three Christians: Macarius, Felix and Verianus, who witnessed the slaughter of the holy martyrs, came that night to take their bodies. All the bodies being mixed up and the night being very dark, they, in uncertainty about how to distinguish the martyrs’ bodies, prayed to God, and three lights suddenly appeared above the bodies of the saints. They then took them and gave them burial.
Catholic Calendar
Ss. Chrysanthus and Daria
Married to Saint Daria. Zealous and public in his Christianity. Martyred under Numerian and Carinus. Not surprisingly, many legends developed around couple of married martyrs, and others were rewritten to use them as their lead characters. Modern scholarship has dismissed all these leaving only two of the thousands of faithful lost in the early days of the Church. Born in Egypt and died c.283. Daria was married to Saint Chrysanthus. Zealous and public in her Christianity. Martyred under Numerian and Carinus. Not surprisingly, many legends developed around couple of married martyrs, and others were rewritten to use them as their lead characters. Modern scholarship has dismissed all these leaving only two of the thousands of faithful lost in the early days of the Church. Born in Greece and died c.283.