Holy Martyr Doulas of Cilicia (+c. 305–313)

The holy Martyr Doulas of Cilicia was a pious Christian living in the city of Praetoriada. During the persecution of Christians by the Emperor Maximian (305–313) he was seized and brought to trial before Maximus, the governor of the region of Cilicia. Before the trial began the saint fervently besought the Lord to grant him the power to denounce idol-worship.

Under questioning the blessed martyr courageously confessed Christ and boldly exposed the false religion of the pagans. The governor tried hard to make him renounce the Christian faith, but could find no strength to withstand Doulas’s grace-filled words. Enraged by this, the lawless one mercilessly tortured the saint, and at last shut him up in prison. At every new interrogation the martyr appeared strengthened and revived in soul and body. When he stood before the judge for the last time, his lower jaw was torn off, his shins were broken, and he was tied to the governor’s chariot and dragged through the streets. So the God-pleaser gave up his spirit.

Doulas’s mangled body was thrown into a river. The waves cast it ashore by the saint’s native city. The saint’s remains were committed to the earth with honour.