Saint Polyeuktos1 was the first to be martyred for Christ in the Armenian city of Melitēnḗ. He was a soldier during the reign of Emperor Decius (249-251), and he later suffered martyrdom in the reign of Valerian (253-259). He was a friend of Néarkhos (Νέαρχος) a fellow-soldier and a firm Christian. Polyeuktos, however, although he led a virtuous life, he remained a pagan.

When the persecution against Christians began, Néarkhos said to Polyeuktos, “Friend, soon we shall be separated, for they will take me to torture, and you, alas, will renounce your friendship with me.” Polyeuktos told him that he had seen Christ in a dream. The Savior took his soiled military cloak from him and dressed him in a radiant garment. “Now,” he said, “I am prepared to serve the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Enflamed with zeal, Saint Polyeuktos went to the city square, and tore up the edict of Decius which required everyone to worship the idols. A few moments later, he met a procession carrying twelve idols through the streets of the city. Dashing the idols to the ground, he trampled them underfoot.

His father-in-law, the magistrate Felix, who was responsible for enforcing the imperial edict, was horrified at what Saint Polyeuktos had done and advised him to obey the imperial edict. Polyeuktos told him that we must obey God rather than men. Felix declared that Polyeuktos must die for this. “Go then, bid farewell to your wife and children,” he said. Paulina wept and urged her husband to renounce Christ. Felix also wept, but Saint Polyeuktos remained steadfast in his resolve to suffer for Christ.

Bowing his head beneath the executioner's sword, he was baptized in his own blood. In the reign of Saint Constantine the Great, when the Church of Christ had triumphed throughout the Roman Empire, a church was built at Melitēnḗ in honor of Saint Polyeuktos. Many miracles were worked through his intercession. In that same church, the parents of Saint Euthymios the Great (January 20) prayed fervently for a son. The birth of this great luminary of Orthodoxy occurred in the year 376, through the prayers of the Holy Martyr Polyeuktos.

Saint Polyeuktos was also venerated by Saint Akakios, the Bishop of Melitēnḗ (March 31), who participated in the Third Ecumenical Council, and was a great proponent of Orthodoxy. In the East, as well as in the West, the Holy Martyr Polyeuktos is venerated as the patron Saint of vows and treaties.

The Polyeucte Overture of French composer Paul Dukas is only one of many pieces of classical music inspired by the Saints. It premiered in January of 1892. The French dramatist Pierre Corneille has also written a play, "Polyeucte" (1642), based on the Martyr’s life.

1 The name Polyeuktos means much-desired.

Saint Eustratius came from the city of Tarsus. At twenty years of age he secretly left his parents’ home and settled in the Abgar monastery (on Olympos in Asia Minor). There he lived a strict ascetic life, eating only bread and water, and spending his nights at prayer. After a certain while he was chosen as igumen of the monastery.

During the reign of the Iconoclast Leo the Armenian (813-820), Saint Eustratius hid from pursuit by roaming the hills and the wilds. After the death of the emperor he returned to the monastery. Prayer was always on his lips, and he constantly repeated the words: “Lord, have mercy!”

Before his death he gave instructions to the monks not to be attracted towards earthly blessings, and constantly to think about the future life. Signing himself with the Sign of the Cross, he said, “Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit” and he died in peace at age 95.

Our Father among the Saints Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow, was born in 1507 of noble family, and served for a time in the royal court. While still a young man, he secretly left Moscow and entered Solovki Monastery in the north, about the year 1538, a little over a hundred years after its founding. Because of his spiritual stature he was chosen against his will to succeed Abbot Alexis in 1548. As abbot, Philip was a great builder and beautifier of Solovki Monastery. He laid the foundations for the Cathedral of the Transfiguration, constructed cells, hermitages, and a hospital for the monks and for pilgrims, established a cattle yard on one of the islands, drained swamps and connected waterways by a series of canals and damns, built a mill and various workshops, and even invented ingenious machines and implements to help the monks in their work. His fame spread, and in 1566, by the will of Tsar Ivan IV, he was raised to the rank of Metropolitan of Moscow.

Tsar Ivan the Terrible revered Philip, even as Herod had revered Saint John the Baptist, and he had been a generous benefactor of Solovki Monastery. But because the Tsar had established the oprichnina, a state within a state, giving power to the oprichniki, who used it to oppress and rob the innocent, Philip told him the he could not be Metropolitan if the Tsar suffered the oprichniki to continue in power. This angered the Tsar, he told Philip that it was not for him to interfere in matters of state, and many hierarchs prevailed upon Philip to accept the Metropolitan's throne. But as the horrors committed by the oprichniki grew worse-thefts, false accusations, murders, and all manner of injustice and rapacity, with the knowledge of the Sovereign- Saint Philip could not remain silent. He rebuked the Tsar once and again for the reign of terror that he had brought upon his own people. The Tsar warned him to hold his peace and bless him to do as he wished. The Metropolitan answered that his silence brought sin upon the Sovereign. The Tsar threatened him with his wrath, and told him to resign his throne if he were not willing to comply. Saint Philip answered that he had not sought the Metropolitan's throne, and it was the Tsar who had deprived him of his hermitage on Solovki; but now the pastoral burden was upon him, he would not remain silent when the canons of the Church were broken.

The more the Tsar threatened Philip with his wrath, the more the holy hierarch stood fast and threatened the Tsar with judgment of God; Philip alone had the courage to rebuke the Tsar openly and oppose his iniquity. Finally the Tsar, finding false witnesses against Philip in his own monastery on Solovki, held a council against him in early November, 1568; the Saint had to endure the persecution of the Tsar who had torn him from his beloved monastery, the betrayal of his fellow hierarchs, and the slanders of his own spiritual children. He was imprisoned in Moscow, but because of the love of the people for him the Tsar feared him even in prison, and he was transferred to a monastery in Tver, where he spent a year in great hardships and continual prayer. On December 23, 1569, a royal messenger came, asking the Metropolitan's blessing for the Tsar's expedition to Novgorod. Saint Philip told him to do that which he came to do, then raised his hands in prayer to God. The Tsar's messenger fell upon him and suffocated the holy hierarch with a pillow. In 1591 his relics were transferred to Solovki, and in 1652 to the Dormition Cathedral in Moscow; many miracles were wrought through his holy relics (See also Oct. 5 and July 3).