Память святых мучеников Агапия, Пуплия, Тимолая, Ромила, Александра, Александра, Дионисия и Дионисия

The holy martyrs lived during the reign of Diocletian 1949. Agapios came from Gaza 1950, Timolaus from Pontus Euxine 1951, both Dionysius from Trippolis Phoenician, Puplius and both Alexanders from Egypt, and Romilus was a subdeacon of the Diospolis 1952 church. All of them suffered in Palestinian Caesarea from hegemon Urvan in the second year of the persecution against Christians that began in 1953. Then a decree was issued across all countries and cities to force Christians to worship idols and make sacrifices to them. On the occasion of the then pagan holiday, a spectacle was prepared in Caesarea for the people gathered from all sides, namely, the Christians held there in bonds were prepared for torture. All the Greeks who were there gathered to look at this spectacle. First of all, after much torment, the holy martyr Timothy was burned at the stake (his memory is August 19); After this, the holy martyr Agapius and the holy martyr Thekla were given over to be devoured by wild beasts (not the Agapius who is remembered today, but another of the same name, who suffered earlier with Saint Thekla and was remembered together with the martyr Timothy in the month of August). When this bloody spectacle took place, six courageous Christian youths: Puplius, Timolaus, Romilus, both Alexanders and Dionysius, whose memory is celebrated today, inflamed with zeal for Christ, tied their own hands, as a sign that they wished to suffer for Christ and, out of love for Christ, were ready to go into the fire and be devoured by wild beasts. Quickly approaching the very center of the spectacle, they stopped in front of Hegemon Urvan and loudly exclaimed: The hegemon, seeing that they were still young in age, not wanting to destroy them, began to gently exhort them to bow to idols and not to destroy themselves in such prosperous years. When he was unsuccessful, he ordered them to be sent to prison. A few days later, Saint Agapius, an honest and glorious man among Christians, was numbered among the prisoners of Christ, since he had previously confessed the name of Jesus Christ with great boldness and had already endured many different torments for this. Agapius was at that time taken together with his servant Dionysius the Egyptian and imprisoned along with the six holy men mentioned, so that all of them became eight. For a long time these holy martyrs were kept in prison, many times they were tortured in various ways, but they did not reject Christ. Finally, they were condemned to beheading and all in one day laid down their honorable heads for the Head of the Church Jesus Christ, to whom they betrayed their souls and from whom they were crowned with victorious crowns in the Church triumphant in heaven. Diocletian, the Roman emperor, reigned from 284 to 305 and ruled the eastern half of the Roman Empire. The western half was ruled by his friend, Maximian. Gaza is a significant coastal city in Asia Minor, once owned by the Philistines. Pontus Euxine, i.e. Black Sea. “Pont Euxoinsky” actually means: “hospitable sea.” This name was adopted by the Black Sea by immigrants from the Romans who settled near this sea. Diospol was in Palestine in the north. - zap, from Jerusalem. You might be interested in: