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| Sts. Macedonios, Theodoulos and Tatian the Martyrs (Feast Day - September 12) |
Verses
Macedonios and Tatian my Christ,
With Theodoulos were beheaded on Your behalf.*
With Theodoulos were beheaded on Your behalf.*
By Sozomen
(Ecclesiastical History, Bk. 5, Ch. 11)
[During the reign of Julian the Apostate, in 362,] Macedonios, Theodoulos and Tatian, who were Phrygians by birth, courageously endured martyrdom. A temple of Misos, a city of Phrygia, having been reopened by the governor of the province, after it had been closed many years, these martyrs entered therein by night, and destroyed the images. As other individuals were arrested, and were on the point of being punished for the deed, they avowed themselves the actors in the deed. They might have escaped all further punishment by offering sacrifices to idols; but the governor could not persuade them to accept acquittal on these terms. His persuasions being ineffectual, he maltreated them in a variety of forms, and finally extended them on a gridiron, beneath which a fire had been lighted. While they were being consumed, they said to the governor, Amachus (for that was his name), "if you desire cooked flesh, give orders that our bodies may be turned with the other side to the fire, in order that we may not seem, to your taste, half cooked." Thus did these men nobly endure and lay down their life amid the punishments.
(Ecclesiastical History, Bk. 3, Ch. 15)
Amachius governor of Phrygia ordered that the temple at Merum, a city of that province, should be opened, and cleared of the filth which had accumulated there by lapse of time: also that the statues it contained should be polished fresh. This in being put into operation grieved the Christians very much. Now a certain Macedonios and Theodoulos and Tatian, unable to endure the indignity thus put upon their religion, and impelled by a fervent zeal for virtue, rushed by night into the temple, and broke the images in pieces. The governor infuriated at what had been done, would have put to death many in that city who were altogether innocent, when the authors of the deed voluntarily surrendered themselves, choosing rather to die themselves in defense of the truth, than to see others put to death in their stead. The governor seized and ordered them to expiate the crime they had committed by sacrificing: on their refusal to do this, their judge menaced them with tortures; but they despising his threats, being endowed with great courage, declared their readiness to undergo any sufferings, rather than pollute themselves by sacrificing. After subjecting them to all possible tortures he at last laid them on gridirons under which a fire was placed, and thus slew them. But even in this last extremity they gave the most heroic proofs of fortitude, addressing the ruthless governor thus: "If you wish to eat broiled flesh, Amachius, turn us on the other side also, lest we should appear but half cooked to your taste." Thus these martyrs ended their life.
Notes:
* It is not known why the Synaxarion of Constantinople says they died by beheading, since the historians are clear they died after being grilled on the gridiron.