Страдания святого священномученика Ианнуария

While the wicked emperors Diocletian and Maximian 2682 were furiously persecuting Christians, Bishop Iannuarius was captured and brought for questioning to the ruler of Campania 2683 Timothy. When the military leader saw that Iannuarius, forced in various ways to worship idols, sometimes seduced by caresses, sometimes frightened by threats, remained unshakable in the Christian faith, he ordered him to be thrown into a red-hot oven for burning. But the saint, like the three youths in the cave of Babylon (see: Dan. 3), remained unharmed from being scorched by fire, since the Angel of God descended to him, destroying the power of the fire, and the saint rejoiced in the midst of the fire, singing and praising God. When he came out of the oven, everyone noticed that the fire did not even touch his clothes, and they were very surprised at this. The military commander, believing that the Christian bishop had emerged unharmed from the fire, being protected by some magical power, was filled with intense anger at the saint and ordered him to be stretched on a tormenting machine so tightly that even the members of his body were separated from their joints, and then ordered the saint to be beaten without mercy until his entire body was torn and his bare bones were visible, and the ground around him was stained with blood. Two clerics came to this terrible sight - Deacon Festus and Reader Disiderius, who, standing in the crowd of people, looked with reverence at the suffering of their bishop. And since they either rejoiced in their souls over the patience demonstrated by the martyr, or cried over the cruel suffering inflicted on him, the pagans guessed from these signs that they were Christians. Then the wicked seized them both and, having tied them up together with the holy martyr Bishop Iannuarius, led them after the military leader to the city of Puteoli 2684, where they threw them into prison. In the same prison were Proclus and Sossius, deacons of the city of Puteoli, and two laymen, Eutyches and Akution, who were imprisoned here for confessing Christ, condemned to be torn to pieces by wild beasts. When day came, they were all taken out to the square with the bishop and given over to the beasts. God, who was glorified among His saints, stopped the mouths of the beasts, just as He once stopped the mouths of the lions in the den into which Daniel was thrown (Dan.6). Not one of those animals touched the holy martyrs, but all of them, having temporarily changed their natural ferocity to sheep’s meekness, approached the holy Bishop Iannuarius and fell at his feet. This extraordinary incident left all the people there in amazement and horror. Meanwhile, the military leader, attributing this to the imaginary magical power of Christians, was considering how to put to death the saint of God and all those who were with him. While he, blind with spiritual eyes, was thinking about this, he suddenly lost his bodily vision and felt the need for a guide, feeling the walls. When the saint and martyr of Christ Iannuarius, in his kindness, prayed for his tormentor, the military leader Timothy, the latter immediately received his sight physically, but not mentally. The people, looking at all these miracles, believed in Christ, numbering about five thousand people. Having received his sight through the prayers of the martyr from sudden blindness, the ungrateful and petrified military leader not only did not recognize the truth, but fell into even greater madness and, instead of giving praise to Christ our Lord, uttered blasphemies against Him; inflamed with anger at the conversion of so many people to Christ, he ordered the holy martyrs to be beheaded with the sword. Thus, the holy martyr, Saint Iannuarius of God, with his fellow sufferers - deacons Festus, Proclus and Sossius, with the reader Disiderius and with Eutyches and Acution - laymen, received the crown of martyrdom, being killed by them with a sword outside the walls of the city of Puteola 2685. The bodies of these holy martyrs were taken to them by the inhabitants of the surrounding cities, and each city took one martyr, each wanting to have his own intercessor before God. The body of the Hieromartyr Iannuarius was taken by the inhabitants of the city of Naples; Having brought it to their city with honor, they placed it in their church. At the time when they took the saint’s body from the city of Puteola, they collected the saint’s blood that had dried there from the ground, put it in a glass vessel and reverently kept it with them. When a vessel with this blood was placed on the head of the martyr, it immediately dissolved and became hot, as if it had just been spilled. In Naples, various miracles were also performed through the prayers of the holy martyr Iannuarius. The following miracle was especially glorified there. Once upon a time, Mount Vesuvius 2686 erupted in such large quantities of fiery lava that fear and trembling gripped the inhabitants of not only nearby, but also distant cities. But when the people, having come to the saint’s tomb, began to cry out to him for help with tears, the fiery lava immediately disappeared into that mountain, and no harm happened to the people. Another glorious miracle happened over the deceased youth. One widow woman named Maximilla had an only son and when he died, she cried inconsolably for him. Arriving at the church, she noticed above the church doors an icon with an image of the holy Bishop Iannuarius; Remembering the miracle that once happened in the Old Testament, namely how the holy prophet Elisha raised the son of the Shunammite woman (see: 2 Kings 4), she placed firm trust in God and in the saint of God and acted according to the example of Elisha: taking the icon of the holy martyr Iannuarius, she laid it on her dead youth, putting her eyes to her eyes, her lips to lips and the rest of the likeness of the depicted body to the body of the dead man and prayed with groaning and hot tears, saying: - Pleasant of God! Have mercy on me and calm my sorrow: raise up my only son. When she prayed like this, her son immediately came to life and stood up healthy. All those who gathered for his funeral, having seen such a glorious miracle, were surprised, glorified and thanked God, who works wondrous miracles through His saints, and exalted with praise the holy martyr Iannuarius as their quick helper, through whose holy prayers may the Lord bestow upon us His mercies forever. Amen. Diocletian ruled the Roman Empire from 284 to 305, and Maximian Galerius from 305 to 311. Campania is the southernmost region of central Italy, located along the shores of the Tyrrhenian Sea from Mount Massica to the Silara River. Puteoli is a seaside town in Campania, near Naples. The death of the holy martyrs followed ca. 305 Vesuvius is a volcano in Italy near the city of Naples. In 79 AD there was the first eruption of Vesuvius, which buried the cities of Herculaneus, Pompeii and Stobia. Since that time, Vesuvius has erupted periodically, sometimes several times a decade. In 1906, by the way, there was a fairly strong eruption that destroyed several cities. You might be interested in: