Holy Martyrs Tyrsus, Leucius and Callinicus

Life

Saints Tyrsus and Leucius were honorable citizens of Caesarea in Bithynia, the first baptized and the second a catechumen. Callinicus was an idolatrous priest. When the emperor—Decius's successor Cumbricius—began mercilessly to torture and kill Christians, the fearless Leucius stepped before him and, denouncing him, said to him: Why hast thou made war upon thine own soul, O Cumbricius? The enraged judge immediately ordered that he be beaten and tortured, and finally beheaded with a sword. The tortured Leucius went to his beheading joyfully as to a wedding. Seeing the death of brave Leucius, blessed Tyrsus was inflamed with divine zeal, and like Leucius he too stepped before the judge and denounced him for his crimes and for his disbelief in the one true God. Tyrsus too was beaten and cast into prison. The invisible hand of God healed him of his wounds, opened the prison doors for him and led him out. Tyrsus immediately went to Bishop Phileas of Caesarea, that he might baptize him. After baptism Tyrsus was again captured and tortured, but he endured the torments as if in a dream and not in reality. By the power of his prayer many idols fell. Seeing this, the idolatrous priest Callinicus was converted to the Faith of Christ. Both Callinicus and Tyrsus were condemned to death. Callinicus was beheaded with a sword, and Tyrsus was placed in a wooden box to be sawn through with a saw. But God's power did not permit this, so the saw could not even cut the wood. Then Saint Tyrsus rose up out of the box, prayed to God thanking Him for the torments, and peacefully gave up his spirit to his Lord. At the end of the fourth century, Caesar Flavius built a church to Saint Tyrsus near Constantinople, and laid in it his holy relics. The saint appeared in a vision to Empress Pulcheria and recommended to her that she bury the relics of the forty martyrs near his relics.

From the Hymn of Praise

You came to know the Faith, you confessed Christ,You gave up the body, that you might save the soul,Therefore your name shines in heavenAnd in the church glows, fire unquenched.