Saints Eustratius and Companions

The Norwegian bishops' saints database (katolsk.no) tells the story as the passion gives it. Eustratius came from Arauraka in Armenia, a place it identifies with Akçalı Köyü near Şiran in modern Turkey, and he was a Christian Armenian of a noble and well-known family. ¹ He was also known by the bynames Cyrisices or Striniarius. ¹ Suspected of being a Christian, he was arrested by the prefect of Sateleon, and when he would not let go of Christ he was tortured in many ways and then put in prison. ¹

His servant Eugene went with him. katolsk.no calls him faithful, and says that he gave himself up as a Christian. ¹ The Byzantine office remembers what the first stage cost Eustratius: he was beaten without mercy and made to walk the roads in iron sandals whose nails pierced his feet, then shut in a dungeon. ³

When the prefect set out for Nicopolis, he took Eustratius with him by way of Arauraka, his home town, and had him scourged several times on the road. ¹ There a fellow townsman named Mardarius looked after him and spoke up for him. ¹ When Mardarius then confessed Christ himself, he paid for it with his life. ¹ So did Auxentius, a priest of the local church, who had also prayed for Eustratius. ¹ katolsk.no says Auxentius was beheaded, and that Mardarius was hung up by the ankles and pierced with red-hot needles. ¹

Eugene was then brought out of prison before the prefect. ¹ He refused to sacrifice to the gods and was beaten with clubs until he died. ¹

Eustratius, meanwhile, endured a public scourging, and salt and vinegar were rubbed into his wounds, without his denying his faith. ¹ Among the soldiers was a secret Christian named Orestes, who, seeing the courage of Eustratius under torture, would no longer hide what he believed. ¹ He was sent with Eustratius to the prefect of Sebasteia, who had him laid on a red-hot grill, and he died there. ¹ The Byzantine office sings of how "Orestes and Mardarius joined the wise Eustratius, Auxentius and Eugene in their glorious struggle." ³

Eustratius was the last. katolsk.no says he received Holy Communion from the bishop of Sebasteia, then walked singing into the furnace that had been prepared for him, and died there. ¹ The Byzantine office puts the same death in liturgical terms: "baked in an oven like a pure sacrifice," he offered himself to the one who was sacrificed for him. ³ It also sings of the wounds of his tortures suddenly disappearing. ³

The bishop had the bodies of the five buried at Arauraka, as he had promised. ¹ Sebasteia is the modern Turkish city of Sivas. ¹

katolsk.no is candid about the document behind all this. It calls the passion of these martyrs a good example of how such texts were added to, and even rewritten, in later centuries for teaching purposes. ¹ The scenes in which Eustratius argues with the magistrate and discusses passages of Plato and the classical poets are its main instance. ¹

It also notes that the story seems to have borrowed from that of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, who hold an important place in the Orthodox calendar. ¹ Fragments of the passion survive in a ninth-century manuscript, katolsk.no says, but there is no earlier confirmation of the martyrs' names or of what they did. ¹

The Eastern liturgy took the scholar's portrait to heart all the same. The hymns for December 13 praise Eustratius for "the brilliance of his invincible words," compare his wisdom to a cup filled to overflowing, and call him the "brilliant commander" of the five. ³ The Gospel appointed for the day in the Byzantine Catholic Menaion is Luke 21:12-19, in which Christ warns his disciples that they will be handed over to kings and governors for his name. ³

The five were venerated first at Arauraka. ¹ From there, katolsk.no says, the cult spread to Cappadocia, then through the Greek and Latin world, and reached Rome in the eighth century. ¹ Under Pope Hadrian I (772-95) their relics were brought to the Roman church of Sant'Apollinare; today they rest there and in Santa Maria in Via Lata. ¹

katolsk.no also points to an early image of the cult: a depiction of the miracles of Saint Eustratius on the beams of an iconostasis from the first half of the twelfth century at Saint Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai. ¹

None of the sources consulted names a patronage for Eustratius or any of his companions. katolsk.no says their cult began at Arauraka, where they were buried, and spread from there to Rome. ¹ The Byzantine office asks their prayers for the forgiveness of sins and for the salvation of souls, without assigning them a particular cause. ³

The feast day of Saints Eustratius, Auxentius, Eugene, Mardarius and Orestes is December 13, the day of Saint Lucy. ¹²³ The current Roman Martyrology lists them on that day, in its Italian edition, simply as martyrs in Armenia. ² The Byzantine Catholic Menaion also keeps them on December 13, with a full office of hymns at Vespers and its own readings at the Divine Liturgy. ³ katolsk.no, which heads its entry December 13, says in its text that their day in the Roman Martyrology is December 14. ¹

Four of the five, in the passion, die because of the first. ¹ Mardarius looked after a prisoner from his own town, Auxentius prayed for him, Eugene stayed with his master, and Orestes watched him under the lash and stopped pretending. ¹ Each of them was drawn in by standing beside a man who was suffering. ¹

katolsk.no says plainly how much of the story is later work, and names the speeches from Plato as an example. ¹ What the Church has kept, from Arauraka to Rome and in its Martyrology today, is the memory of five names together. ¹²

The Byzantine Catholic office for December 13 asks Christ to save our souls through their prayers. ³ One of its hymns names all five and calls them a choir of martyrs "with five-fold brilliance." ³