Holy Hieromartyr Julian and the Forty Martyrs with Him (IV)

The holy Hieromartyr Julian lived in the fourth century near the city of Ancyra. During the persecution of the Christians by Diocletian (284–305) he took refuge with forty of his companions in a cave and secretly celebrated the divine services there. When the governor of the province of Galatia learned of this, he had the blessed one seized and ordered him to give away the hiding place of the other Christians who had been with him and had managed to hide. When they received a firm refusal in reply, in their fury they stripped him and stood him on a red-hot iron grate; but when the saint made the sign of the cross, an angel cooled the heat of the fire and the martyr remained unharmed. To the governor’s question as to who he was and how he had put out the fire, the blessed one replied: “I am a servant of God!” The executioners brought Julian’s aged mother and threatened that if she could not persuade her son to offer sacrifice, they would use violence on her. The valiant handmaid of Christ replied that if they defiled her body against her will, this would be counted to her before the Lord not as a sin but, on the contrary, as the labour of a martyr. The lawless let the blessed mother go, and decided to put Julian to death. In his last prayer the saint gave fervent thanks to the Lord, begged Him to grant him the strength to endure the torments, and meekly bowed his neck to the sword. At that moment a voice sounded from on high, calling the Lord’s chosen one to the Kingdom. The Christians hiding in the cave heard this voice too; they came of their own will to the place of Saint Julian’s martyrdom and themselves boldly confessed Christ. The saints were brought to the governor, and he ordered the martyrs to be beheaded (the holy Hieromartyr Julian is also commemorated on 13 September).