Holy Martyrs Eleutherius, His Mother Anthia, and Corebus the Eparch (II)

The holy Martyrs Eleutherius, his mother Anthia, and Corebus the eparch. Eleutherius’s mother was a noble and wealthy Roman woman. Converted to Christianity by the Apostle Paul and baptised by his own hand, she brought up her son too in the fear of God. When Eleutherius was fifteen, Anacletus, Pope of Rome (76–88), ordained him deacon, and three years later ordained him priest. At the age of twenty Eleutherius (such cases are very rare in the history of the Church) was appointed Bishop of Illyria. The young hierarch governed his flock wisely and converted many pagans to the law of Christ. The saint was filled with divine grace and had entrusted himself wholly to the Lord, and so the grace of the Holy Spirit made up for every weakness and human shortcoming in him.

When the God-hating Emperor Hadrian (117–138) began to persecute the Christians, Bishop Eleutherius too was seized. Protected by the power of God, Eleutherius boldly confessed Christ, denounced the king’s lawlessness, and prayed for the conversion of his executioners.

When Hadrian saw that he could do Eleutherius no harm by torture, he ordered him to be tied to two maddened oxen, but this time too he did not get his way: an angel of the Lord broke the bonds, delivered the holy martyr from the executioners’ hands, and set him on the summit of a mountain near the city. After this the blessed Eleutherius lived among the wild beasts. When Hadrian learned of this, he sent horsemen to seize the Lord’s chosen one. Saint Eleutherius gave himself up to the soldiers of his own accord.

By order of the lawless king Eleutherius was beheaded. Saint Anthia thanked the Lord, who had counted her son worthy to suffer for Christ. After this Anthia too was put to death by beheading. The eparch Corebus himself believed in Christ, for which he too was put to death. The Orthodox buried the bodies of the Lord’s chosen ones with honour.