The Holy Martyrs Marinus and Martha, with Their Sons Audifax and Abachum, the Priest Valentine, Cyrinus, Asterius, and Many Others

Life

All suffered in the time of Emperor Claudius Flavius in Rome, in the year 269. Marinus and Martha were wealthy people from Persia; they sold all their possessions in Persia and with their sons came to Rome to venerate the relics of the holy Apostles and the other martyrs. When the emperor asked them why they had come from such a great distance, leaving their native gods, to seek dead men in Rome, they answered: "We are servants of Christ, and we came to venerate the holy Apostles, whose immortal souls live with God, that they might be our intercessors before Christ our God." Cyrinus was thrown into the Tiber, from which his body was pulled out by Marinus and Martha and honorably buried. The priest Valentine was handed over to a certain commander Asterius, so that he might persuade him to renounce Christ. But Valentine by prayer healed Asterius's daughter, who had been blind for two years, and then baptized Asterius and his entire household. All of them, in various ways, received torments and death for Christ the Lord, who received them into His immortal kingdom, to rejoice eternally.