Synaxarion of the Holy Martyr Doulas of Cilicia

St. Doulas of Cilicia (Feast Day - June 15)

Verses

Doulas did not give reverence as a servant to images,
As God's servant he endured the scraping of his flesh.

He was from Zephyrium, which is located in the province of Cilicia. Having confessed Christ as the true God, he was brought before the governor Maximus, and beaten harshly. The Saint narrated the Greek myth, of how Apollo fell in love with Daphne, chased after her, but did not achieve his desire. This moved the governor to greater anger. He had him beaten again on his stomach, having been placed on his back on a fiery gridiron. Then he was put on another gridiron, and wetting his hair with oil, they put him over burning coals. After this they cut into his back with iron, and the wounds from the cuts were rubbed with brick and vinegar. Then they struck his jaw and head.

The governor then asked the Saint about Christ: "How do you consider him God when in time he became a man?" In a few words the Saint narrated the entire economy of the Lord. He was then brought to another examination, where he was forced to taste of the sacrifices to the idols. Because he did not obey this out of his own free will, they forcefully put in his mouth wine that had been offered to idols, but the Saint spit it out. For this he was suspended, and he was scraped so much, that the cheeks of his face and his bones were stripped of their skin, and his innards were exposed. Then he was forced to run twenty miles, and in this way the renowned athlete grew weary, and delivered his soul into the hands of God.