Hieromartyr Polychronius, Bishop of Babylon; Parmenius, Helimenas and Chrysotelus, Presbyters; Luke and Mocius, Deacons; Abdon and Sennen, Persian Princes; and the Martyrs Olympius and Maximus (+c. 251)
The Hieromartyr Polychronius, Bishop of Babylon; the presbyters Parmenius, Helimenas and Chrysotelus; the deacons Luke and Mocius; Abdon and Sennen, Persian princes; and the holy Martyrs Olympius and Maximus suffered in the third century in the reign of the God-hating Emperor Decius (249–251).
Decius defeated the Persians, conquered their country, found many Christians among the local inhabitants, and began to persecute them. The tormentors seized Polychronius, Bishop of Babylon, the presbyters Parmenius, Helimenas and Chrysotelus, and two deacons, Luke and Mocius, and brought them before the godless ruler. The emperor ordered them to offer sacrifice to the idols. Saint Polychronius answered: “We offer ourselves as a sacrifice to our Lord Jesus Christ, but your wretched idols, made with hands, we will never worship.” Enraged by the bold answer, Decius ordered the holy confessors to be thrown into prison. At the next interrogation Polychronius stood silent. Decius turned to the presbyters: “Your leader has become dumb.” Saint Parmenius answered him: “The holy bishop has not become dumb, but he does not wish to defile his holy lips and ‘cast his pearls before swine’” (Matt. 7:6). By order of the infuriated emperor Parmenius’s tongue was cut out. In spite of this he said to the hierarch Polychronius quite clearly: “Master, pray for me; I see the Holy Spirit upon thee.” By Decius’s order the executioners smashed the holy bishop’s lips with stones. The blessed martyr raised his eyes to heaven and commended his soul to the Lord. The godless left the saint’s remains in front of the temple of Saturn. At night the Persian princes Abdon and Sennen, secret Christians, carried them away and buried them with honour along the city wall.
Soon Decius went to the city of Cordula, and ordered the three presbyters and two deacons to be led along after him. In Cordula he again tried to force the martyrs to offer sacrifice to the idols, but Parmenius, whose tongue had been cut out, answered for them all with a loud and bold refusal.
The emperor decided that the blessed presbyter was speaking without a tongue by the power of sorcery, and gave orders first to intensify the confessors’ torments and then to throw them into the fire. At that moment a voice was heard from heaven: “Come unto Me, ye lowly in heart.” Decius attributed this voice too to sorcery and beheaded the martyrs. At night the Persian princes Abdon and Sennen carried away the holy bodies and buried them in their own village near Cordula. This deed did not remain hidden. The princes were seized and brought before the emperor. The godless autocrat ordered them to be shut up in prison.
On the same day two more Persian Christians, Olympius and Maximus, were brought to Decius. For their firm confession of the faith of Christ the holy martyrs were cut down with the sword after cruel torture. Their bodies lay unburied for five days, and on the sixth day the Christians committed them to the earth with honour.
Returning to Rome, the emperor took Abdon and Sennen with him in fetters. Having arrived in the royal city, he summoned a priest and demanded that the confessors offer sacrifice to the idols. When he received a firm refusal in reply, the enraged Decius decided to throw the saints to the beasts to be torn apart, but the lions and bears lay down meekly at their feet. Then the tormentors hacked the blessed martyrs to death with swords. The holy bodies of the martyrs lay for three days before the idol to frighten the faithful, and then, at night, Quirinus, a secret Christian, carried away their remains in secret and buried them on his own estate. The holy Martyrs Abdon and Sennen died in 251. Their incorrupt relics rest in Rome, in the church of Saint Mark.
