Holy Martyrs Hermylus and Stratonicus (+c. 315)

The holy Martyrs Hermylus and Stratonicus were Slavs. They lived in the city of Singidunum (Belgrade) in the time of the Emperor Licinius (307–324), a persecutor of the Christians, and besides the love of God they were bound to each other by sincere friendship. Hermylus served as a deacon. By order of Licinius he was seized and tortured terribly for a long time, but they could not break him. Saint Stratonicus, the prison overseer and a secret Christian, could not bear to watch his friend’s torments; he burst into tears and gave himself away. After this he too shared Hermylus’s lot. The tortured saints were thrown into the river. Three days later the Christians found the martyrs’ bodies cast up on the river bank and buried them with honour near Singidunum. There is information that at the turn of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries their incorrupt heads were kept in Constantinople, in the Church of Hagia Sophia.