Holy Martyr Eleutherius (IV)

The holy Martyr Eleutherius was one of the closest servants of the Emperor Maximian Hercules (284–305; 307–310). After his conversion to Christianity he withdrew from the court, went into seclusion on his estate outside the city, and set up a church in his house. The saint explained his absence from the palace by illness. One of his servants informed the emperor that Eleutherius had become a Christian. The enraged autocrat ordered the blessed one to offer sacrifice to the idols. The martyr answered with a firm refusal, for which he was beheaded. Saint Eleutherius’s incorrupt relics were kept in Constantinople, and later translated to Italy, to the city of Teate.