Synaxarion of the Holy Hieromartyr Olbianos the Bishop of Anaea with his Disciples

St. Olbianos of Anaea (Feast Day - May 29)

Verses

Olbianos I say was very happy,
For on behalf of God he died all-happy.

He was during the reign of Emperor Maximian, and during the consulate of Alexander and Maximus, when Julias Sextus and Aelianus governed Asia, in the year 301. For the faith of Christ he was brought before the previously mentioned governors. When Agrippinus and Clementius, the custodians of the idols, were offering sacrifices to the false god Rhea, Saint Olbianos was urged to sacrifice to her. Then the Hierarch of Christ with many demonstrable proofs, elevated and exalted the faith of Christ, while the religion of the idols he spoke against and demeaned.

For this reason, first they burnt the back and inward parts of the Saint with a fiery spit. Then, because he could not be persuaded to sacrifice to the sun, the governor referred his disobedience to the proconsul. The proconsul ordered for the Saint to be beaten with rods without mercy, after having first stripped him naked. After this the servants of error lit a great fire, into which they cast the athlete of Christ together with his disciples, and thus through fire they met their end, and he received from the Lord the crown of the contest.

The Saint performed many miracles both during his life, as well as after his venerable repose many remarkable actions were done through his honorable relic, for those who hasten to him with faith, as his longer history records.