Polyeuctus the Martyr of Melitene in Armenia
Saint Polyeuktos went to the city square, and tore up the edict of Decius which required everyone to worship the idols. A few moments later, he met a procession carrying twelve idols through the streets of the city. Dashing the idols to the ground, he trampled them underfoot.
His father-in-law, the magistrate Felix, who was responsible for enforcing the imperial edict, was horrified at what Saint Polyeuktos had done and advised him to obey the imperial edict. Polyeuktos told him that we must obey God rather than men.
Felix declared that Polyeuktos must die for this. “Go then, bid farewell to your wife and children,” he said. Paulina wept and urged her husband to renounce Christ. Felix also wept, but Saint Polyeuktos remained steadfast in his resolve to suffer for Christ.
Bowing his head beneath the executioner’s sword, he was baptized in his own blood.
Eustratios the Wonderworker
Peter, Bishop of Sebaste, brother of Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa
Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow
Leave a Reply