Holy Martyrs Speusippus, Eleusippus, Meleusippus, Leonilla, Neon, Turbo and Jovilla (+161–180)

The holy Martyrs Speusippus, Eleusippus, Meleusippus, Leonilla, and with them Neon, Turbo and Jovilla suffered in the second century, during the persecution under Marcus Aurelius (161–180), in Gaul (according to another tradition, in Cappadocia). Leonilla was already advanced in years when she was baptised by the hand of a disciple of Polycarp of Smyrna. Afterwards she converted her grandsons too to Christianity. Moved by divine zeal, the brothers smashed the idols and reproached the pagans for their folly. The tormentors brought Leonilla to the executioner’s block and ordered her to persuade her grandsons to deny Christ, but she praised the young men for their boldness and their courageous confession of the faith. Then the saints were terribly tortured: first they were hung by their hands from a tree and pulled downwards so hard that their bones were torn from the joints, and then they were thrown into a fire. Protected by divine grace, Speusippus, Eleusippus and Meleusippus walked freely in the fire and taunted the executioners: “We have been given authority to go to the Lord when we wish, but we have decided first to take our fill of mocking your madness.” At that moment a choir of angels came to the martyrs. They knelt down, prayed, and committed their souls to the Lord. After her grandsons’ death Leonilla too was beheaded. Together with them suffered the pious Jovilla, who left her husband and little son and openly confessed Christ. The tormentors hung the saint up by her hair, and then ended her life with a sword stroke to the neck. Saint Neon wrote down the blessed end of the martyrs, handed the manuscript to Turbo, and himself declared that he was a Christian, for which he was beaten to death. Turbo too ended his life as a martyr. These saints are especially venerated in Spain, where many churches dedicated to them have been built.