Holy Apostles Jason and Sosipater, and the Virgin Cercyra

Life

The first two were of the Seventy Apostles, and the last was the daughter of a certain king on the island of Corfu. Jason and Sosipater are mentioned by the Apostle Paul (Rom. 16:21), who calls them his kinsmen. Jason was from Tarsus, as was the Apostle Paul himself, and Sosipater from Achaia. The first was appointed by the apostles as Bishop of Tarsus and the second as Bishop of Iconium. Traveling and preaching the Gospel, these two apostles arrived on the island of Corfu, where they succeeded in building a church in the name of Saint Stephen the Protomartyr and in winning some pagans over to the Church. The king of that island cast them into prison, where seven brigands were confined: Saturninus, Jakischolus, Faustianus, Januarius, Marsalius, Euphrasius, and Mammius. These seven the apostles converted to the faith of Christ, and from wolves made them lambs. When the king heard of this, he ordered that the seven be put to death in boiling pitch. And so they received the crown of martyrdom. When after this the king was torturing the apostles, his daughter the virgin Cercyra watched from a window the sufferings of the men of God, and learning why they were being tortured, she herself declared that she was a Christian and distributed all her jewels to the poor. The king grew wrathful at his daughter and confined her in a special prison, and when he could not thereby turn her from Christ, he ordered the prison set afire. The prison burned down, but the virgin remained alive. Seeing this miracle, many people were baptized. The enraged king then ordered his daughter bound to a tree and slain with arrows. Those who had come to believe in Christ fled from the terrible king to a nearby island and hid themselves. The king set out by boat to seize them, but the boat sank in the sea, and so the impious one perished as did Pharaoh of old. The new king accepted the Christian faith, was baptized, and received the name Sebastian. Jason and Sosipater freely preached the Gospel and strengthened the Church of God on Corfu into deep old age, and there they ended their earthly lives and passed into the courts of the Lord.

From the Hymn of Praise

### THE VIRGIN CERCYRAThe virgin Cercyra, both tender and pure,From the royal court heard the name of Christ,And that holy name held sway over her heart,So that she was ready for His sake to suffer.