Holy Martyr Eusignius (+362)

The holy Martyr Eusignius was born in Antioch in the middle of the third century. For six decades he served in the army of the Roman emperors Diocletian, Maximian Hercules, Constantius Chlorus, Constantine the Great and his sons. At the beginning of the reign of Constantine the Great (306–337) Eusignius saw with his own eyes the appearance in the sky of the radiant cross that foretold victory.

In old age the saint left military service and went back to his homeland. Here he spent his days in prayer and fasting. Meanwhile Julian the Apostate (361–363) ascended the throne, who strove to restore the pagan faith in the empire. On the denunciation of a man of Antioch Saint Eusignius was seized and brought before the emperor’s tribunal for confessing Christ. The blessed one fearlessly denounced the wrathful autocrat for denying the Saviour; he set before him the example of his kinsman Constantine the Great and, as an eyewitness, told him in detail of the miraculous appearance of the sign of the cross in the sky. Julian beheaded the old man, who had reached a hundred years of age (+362).