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| St. Anektos of Caesarea (Feast Day - June 27) |
Verses
Anektos did not hide having endured,
To the end death on behalf of Christ.
To the end death on behalf of Christ.
He contested during the reign of Emperor Diocletian, when Urban was governor of Caesarea in Cappadocia, in the year 298. Because he taught the Christians and implored them to not fear torture, but to resist the Greeks for the sake of truth, and die on behalf of their faith in Christ, for this reason he was accused before the governor. He was thus arrested and first put in prison. Then he stood before the governor, who urged him to sacrifice to the idols. By his prayers the Saint overturned the idols and they fell to the ground. For this the Martyr had the four parts of his body stretched out, and ten soldiers beat him with sticks, which were the wood used to beat on drums. He was then suspended on a wooden pole, they cut off the fingers of his hands with a razor, and scraped his entire body with an iron claw. Then an Angel of the Lord appeared to him, freed him from being tortured, and restored his health. When he was taken down from the wooden pole, his ankles were pierced with iron forks, and on his chest they put a fiery skillet. They then had him sit in a very fiery iron vessel. After this they wounded his legs with iron spits, and cast him into prison. Again an Angel of the Lord appeared, unbound his fetters, and made him healthy, When many Greeks saw that he was healthy, they went to him, were baptized by him, and at the same time they were released from their sicknesses.
After this the Saint was again suspended up by his feet, while a heavy rock was hanging from his hands, and later he was raised upright on a wooden pole. They beat him on the stomach with the sticks used to beat drums, and burned him with lit lamps, spilling boiling led into his mouth, and putting on his head a fiery iron helmet, then he was cast into a lit furnace. Because he was kept unharmed from all these tortures by the grace of Christ, many Greeks converted to the faith of Christ, who all were beheaded, and received the crown of the contest. They then removed two strips of skin from the Saint, from his neck down to his feet. The Martyr took one of the strips of skin, and threw it at the face of the impious governor. For this, the blessed one was beheaded, and instead of blood, milk gushed forth from where his neck was cut. This was followed by another awesome miracle, for the Martyr took his holy head in his hands, walked two milestones, and he departed victoriously for the heavens.
