The Holy martyrs Eutropius, Cleonicus and Basiliscus suffered in the city of Pontine Amasea (Asia Minor) in about the year 308. The brothers Eutropius and Cleonicus, and Basiliscus the nephew of the Great Martyr Theodore the Recruit, were comrades. After the martyric death of St. Theodore, they wound up in prison and by their preaching brought many of the pagans in prison with them to the Christian Faith. Saints Eutropius, Cleonicus, and Basiliscus were brought before the governor Asclepiodotus, they firmly confessed their faith in Christ before him. They were mercilessly beaten, so that their bodies were entirely bruised. On the morning of March 3, Saints Eutropius and Cleonicus were crucified, but Basiliscus was left in prison. St. Basiliscus was executed on May 22 in the city of Komana. They beheaded him and threw his body into a river, but Christian followers found his relics and buried them in a plowed field. Later at Komana a church was built and dedicated to St. Basiliscus.
O Lord our God, your holy martyrs have deserved the crown of immortality on account of their good fight. Armed with your strength, they have vanquished their persecutors and crushed Satan’s dreadful might. Through their supplications, O Christ our God, save our souls.
This trinity of martyrs confessed the Holy Trinity before many nations. Undergoing their suffering of martyrdom, they have been presented to the angels. Today we are honoring them, celebrating their sacred and life-saving memory.
Then the Lord said to Noah: Go in the ark, you and all your household, for you alone in this generation have I found to be righteous before me. Of every clean animal, take with you seven pairs, a male and its mate; and of unclean animals, one pair, a male and its mate; likewise, every bird of the air, seven pairs, a male and a female, to keep their progeny alive over all the earth. For seven days from now I will bring rain down on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and so I will wipe out from the face of the earth every being that I have made. Noah complied, just as the Lord had commanded.
“Now, children, listen to me; happy are they who keep my ways.
Listen to instruction and grow wise, do not reject it!
Happy the one who listens to me, attending daily at my gates, keeping watch at my doorposts;
For whoever finds me finds life, and wins favor from the Lord;
But those who pass me by do violence to themselves; all who hate me love death.”
Wisdom has built her house, she has set up her seven columns;
She has prepared her meat, mixed her wine, yes, she has spread her table.
She has sent out her maidservants; she calls from from the heights out over the city:
“Let whoever is naive turn in here; to any who lack sense I say,
Come, eat of my food, and drink of the wine I have mixed!
Forsake foolishness that you may live; advance in the way of understanding.”
Whoever corrects the arrogant earns insults; and whoever reproves the wicked incurs opprobrium.
Do not reprove the arrogant, lest they hate you; reprove the wise, and they will love you.
Instruct the wise, and they become still wiser; teach the just, and they advance in learning.
The beginning of wisdom is fear of the Lord, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
For by me your days will be multiplied and the years of your life increased.
Icon courtesy of Jack Figel, Eastern Christian Publications – ecpubs.com
Monday, March 2 –
