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THE SECOND
MONTH IN THE NAME
OF THE FATHER AND THE SON AND THE HOLY SPIRIT, On this day the great saints Marcianus and Mercurius became
martyrs. These holy men were
disciples of Saint Paul the martyr, Archbishop of the city of Constantine.
When the Emperor Constantine, the son of Constantine the Great,
reigned, the belief of the infidel Arius waxed strong and he made himself
the enemy of Abba Paul, Archbishop of the city of Constantine, and he
banished him to the country of Armenia, and strangled him and killed him
there. And saints Marcianus
and Mercurius wrote jointly on the day of the death of Saint Paul, and
cursed the emperor, and they said of him that he believed the faith of
Arius the infidel, and they anathematized Arius and the emperor.
And a certain wicked man went and made accusations against them to
the emperor, and said unto him, “They have cursed thee and they have
cursed Arius.” Now the
emperor was dwelling in a certain village, and he sent and had the saints
brought to him, and he commanded [his soldiers] to slay them with the
sword, and they slew them and buried them where they had been slain, and
their bodies remained in that place until the days of John of the Golden
Mouth (Chrysostom). And when
John heard the history of them he sent and brought their honorable bodies
into the city of Constantine; and he built a beautiful church for them,
and he translated their bodies and laid them in it, and the people made a
great feast as at this day. Salutation
to Marcianus and Mercurius, disciples of Paul the archbishop. And on this day also are commemorated Abba Maksu, and Macarius,
and the death of Japheth the son of Noah, whom his father blessed, saying,
“God shall make broad the land of Japheth.” And on this day also died Saint Abba Yam’ata, who was one of
the Nine Saints. Salutation
to Yam’ata, whose body was buried in a rock on the top of a mountain. Glory
be to God Who is glorified in His Saints.
Amen. |
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