The Passion of the Holy Martyr Emilian

In the reign of the wicked Julian the Apostate [reigned 361-363 C.E.], a violent persecution of Christians began, which, like a whirlwind, shook the entire universe.

By this unjust decree, this god-hating king violated the laws of right and adorned the whole East and West with the blood of Christ's unmercifully shed, burning with anger and enmity against Christ and His servants.

Among the other cruel egemones whom he sent to various provinces and cities to torture Christians, he appointed to Dorostol, in the region of Mysia, a merciless tormentor named Capitolinus, a destroyer of men and a worshipper of idols; arriving in that city, he first appeared at the idol shrine, offered sacrifice to the demons and worshiped the soulless idols.

And on the morrow he went up to the place of the judgment, and sat on the judgment-seat, fearing the Christians; and when he had made known the king's decree, he began to inquire whether there were not in the city of the Jews any who were enemies of the gods, or who said that they were Christians, and that there was no such in the city, and that every day they offered sacrifices to them.

When the governor heard this, he was greatly pleased and called together the leading men of the city.

And he took an iron hammer, and smote the idols, and broke them in pieces, and overthrew their altars, and broke the altars, and broke in pieces the great lamps that were before the idols, and went away rejoicing and triumphing.

Then a non-Jew came in and saw what had happened. He was afraid and ran to the master of the temple and the other guests and told them all about it.

And they were all troubled, and the king was wroth, and commanded to find out who had done this; and the messengers made haste, and saw a certain man of the country passing by the potter's field; and they took him, and dragged him to the king, and smote him as a villain; and a great multitude of people with priests followed them, and all spoke blasphemy against their gods, and were wroth.

What profit is it to me, if I hide my case? I will only add to my own guilt, and I will be as though I had shed innocent blood, and as though I had shed blood before God.

When they had left the settler, they seized St. Emilian with fury, and took him to the Ecumenical Patriarch with beatings and insults. Hegemon, sitting in the usual place of judgment before all the people, and seeing Emilian brought to him, asked the citizens: Who is this?

And you said before that there was no adversary of the gods in your city, and behold, one was found because of your idleness; and for this wine you will bring into the king's treasury a liter of gold. When he had said this to the citizens, he turned to Emilian and began to ask him angrily, "Tell us, wicked man, what is your name?"

Hegemon was even more enraged and said, "Tell us your name, you vile man". The martyr answered, "My parents called me Emilian, but Christ the true God chose me to be called a Christian". Hegemon said, "Tell me, you wicked man, who taught you to insult the immortal gods?"

My God and my soul have commanded me to break in pieces the lifeless images which ye call your gods, that they may see that they are lifeless, and dumb, and dumb, and that they have no understanding, but are stone and wood, and have no sense. Know now that I have not blasphemed the true God, who created all things, but have blasphemed your false gods, which have made nothing, but yourselves, and have cast them to the earth, that they may perish for ever.

And he said, Thou alone hast broken the gods, or who else was with thee? And he said, I alone, through my Christ, have broken your idols into ashes, and have trodden down their sacrifices and their lamps, and none hath avenged me, nor delivered me out of my hand; for they are weak, they have no sense. So be ye that make them, and all that trust in them.

And when they had stripped the martyr of his garments, he said unto him, Tell us, thou wretch, who taught thee to break the gods? And the saint answered, I have told thee before, and I will say again, that none but God and my soul have commanded me to do this. Then he commanded the servants, Uncover him, and beat him hard, that he might know that his insolence will not profit him, and that no man will deliver him out of my hand.

And they began to beat him with cruelty. And when they had beaten the martyr so that the ground was covered with his blood, the agemon asked the saint, "Tell me, aged man, who taught you to do this evil?" And the martyr answered in the midst of the beatings, "I told you that God and my soul commanded me to do this, and you did not believe me; and I did not do evil, but good, because I confounded the demon and glorified God".

"Turn him over and beat him on the stomach and on the breast. He is proud, a rebel against the king's laws". And they beat the martyr mercilessly for a long time. Then the emperor ordered them to stop beating the saint and asked him, "Are you a slave or a free man?" "I am the slave of the city chief", replied the saint.

Then Egimon was angry with the governor of the city, Emilian's master, because he had kept such a slave, an enemy of the gods and disobedient to the king's command, and he sentenced him to pay a fine of a liter of silver to the king's treasury, and he condemned the martyr to be burned.

The fire of the fire encompassed the saint, but did not touch him, and then it spread out to a distance, and burned all the unbelievers, whoever it reached, some were severely burned, and others barely escaped.

And when the fire was extinguished, he lay down and prayed to the Lord, and his body was not harmed by the fire, neither was his hair cut off.

And those of the citizens who were secret Christians went to the wife of Egimon, who also secretly professed the Christian faith, told her all about the saint and convinced her to ask her husband for the body of the martyr, miraculously untouched by the fire, to be buried.

She begged her husband, and he allowed her to take the body of the saint without hindrance; and the faithful took him, wrapped him in a cloth with spices, and buried him with honor in a place called Giuzidina, which stood three streets from the city [Subsequently, a church was built in Constantinople in honor of the holy martyr Emilian, into which the honourable relics of the martyr were moved.

The words of the rods, <unk> i.e. Moses, brought by the emperor Constantine the Great to Constantinople and placed in the Church of the Mother of God, near which the temple of Emilian was).] . Suffered for Christ the holy martyr Emilian on the eighteenth of July, on Friday, from the Capitol of the Egimon, in the reign of the Romans and Greeks Julian the Apostate, and over us <unk> Lord our Jesus Christ, with him honor and glory to the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and in the eternal ages. Amen.

God's jealousy, let us burn with it, the fire of our fellow-servants did not frighten us, rising with a fearless will, with a burning fire burned us all, and to the Lord as a sacrifice we offered our martyr, the glorious Emilian.