Apostles Jason and Sosipater, the Virgin Kerkyra and Others; the Martyrs Saturninus, Jakischolus, Faustianus, Januarius, Marsalius, Euphrasius, Mammius, Zeno, Eusebius, Neon and Vitalis (I)
The Apostle Jason lived in Tarsus (Asia Minor). He was the first of the inhabitants of the city to follow Christ. The Apostle Sosipater was from Achaia. Both were made disciples by Saint Paul. The great teacher consecrated Saint Jason Bishop of Tarsus, and Saint Sosipater Bishop of Iconium. They set out westwards to preach the faith, and in 63 reached the island of Kerkyra.
There they built a church of the holy Protomartyr Stephen and baptised many pagans. When the governor of the island learned of this, he took them captive and put them in a cell where seven robbers were held: Saturninus, Jakischolus, Faustianus, Januarius, Marsalius, Euphrasius and Mammius; the apostles converted them to the law of Christ. The former robbers met a martyr’s end: they were thrown into a cauldron full of boiling oil.
The prison guard who witnessed their martyrdom believed in Christ and declared himself a follower of the Saviour. For this his left hand was cut off, then both feet, and at last his head. By the governor’s order the apostles were beaten again and locked in the cell.
When the governor’s daughter, the virgin Kerkyra, learned of the martyrs’ sufferings, she too declared herself a Christian and gave away all her property to the poor. The raging governor tried to win his daughter back, but in vain. The embittered father devised a terrible punishment for his daughter: by his order Saint Kerkyra was thrown into a cell and the robber Murinus was let in to her. When the robber came near the door of the cell, a bear fell upon him. Saint Kerkyra heard the noise and drove off the beast in the name of Christ, and then by prayer healed Murinus’s wounds. The saint explained the law of Christ to the robber, after which Saint Murinus too met a martyr’s end.
The father, his mind darkened by the evil one, set fire to the whole prison, but the virgin still survived; then, by her father’s order, Saint Kerkyra was hung on a tree and strangled, and the tortured body of the virgin martyr was mutilated with arrows.
After her death the governor decided to wipe out the confessors of Christ. The martyrs converted by Saints Jason and Sosipater, Zeno, Eusebius, Neon and Vitalis, were burned on a pyre.
The Christians living on the island of Kerkyra fled to a neighbouring island. The governor pursued them with his soldiers but was drowned in the sea. The governor who replaced him ordered the apostles to be thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil, but when he saw the saints unharmed, he cried out to the Lord with tears: “God of Jason and Sosipater, have mercy on me.”
The freed apostles baptised the governor and named him Sebastian. With his help Saints Jason and Sosipater built several churches on the island, and by their ardent preaching increased the flock of Christ.
