Synaxarion of the Holy Martyr Audaktos and His Daughter Kallisthene of Ephesus

Sts. Audaktos and Kallisthene (Feast Day - October 4)

Verses

To Audaktos.

Dying by the sword, Martyr of the Lord Audaktos,
You live with the Martyrs and behold the living God.

To Kallisthene.

Kallisthene well beheld God,
Indeed the divine she had as a mighty protection.

Saint Audaktos was from Ephesus, and was honored by Maximinus (308-313) with the office of duke and eparch, because he exceeded all others in wealth and sensibility. Because Maximinus asked for his daughter Kallisthene to become his wife in marriage, Audaktos did not want to give her to him, since he was hostile to the Christian faith. For this they seized his belongings, and banished him to Melitene, where he was beheaded.

In turn his daughter Kallisthene cut off the hair on her head, dressed herself in the garments of a man, and went to hide in Nicomedia. After eight years, she went to Thrace to a woman who had a daughter with an eye ailment. Upon being healed, she asked her parents to enter into marriage with the woman that healed their daughter, due to her gift of healing. But the blessed one confessed that she was a woman, which made them glorify God, and she departed.

When Maximinus died, his successor as emperor was Licinius (308-324) in the year 312. Kallisthene appeared to the wife of Licinius, whose name was Constantia, who was a Christian and sister of Constantine the Great. She graciously received Kallisthene, and made her the mother of her son. By this, not only did she receive back all the property of her father, which Maximinus had taken from him, as we said, but she was also able to bring the relic of her renowned father from Melitene to Ephesus. And she had a church built in his name, in which his holy relic was treasured. After living the rest of her life spreading the apostolic faith, the Saint departed to the Lord.