Holy Martyr Ioulianos of Tarsos

Saint Ioulianos of Tarsos
القديس يوليانوس الطرسوسي

The twenty-first of June in the Holy Orthodox Church is the feast-day of Saint Ioulianos of Tarsos, who suffered for Christ under the late third-century persecutions of Diocletian. Ioulianos was a native of Cilicia in Asia Minor, but his cultus is widespread throughout the East and even in the Latin Church – and especially in Antioch, where his relics came to rest.

Saint Ioulianos [Gk. Ιουλιανός, L. Julian, Ar. Yûliyyânûs يوليانوس] was born in the year 271 or 272 in the Roman province of Cilicia, in the city of Anazarbos (today ‘Ayn Zarba in Turkey). His father, a Roman senator, was a pagan. His mother, however, was a secret Christian – and she was the one responsible for having him raised in the Christian faith, albeit in secret. After Ioulianos’s father died, his mother moved to the city of Tarsos. She gave him a high-quality education, and he grew up firm in the precepts of the Christian faith, and in the love of the Lord.

In the year 290, Diocletian began a terrible persecution of Christian believers in Rome, believing them to be subversives. Ioulianos, then a youth of eighteen years, was caught up in the first wave of these persecutions, and was brought before the court of the proconsul Markianos, who was stationed in Tarsos. Markianos was known as a brutal torturer of Christians, and in the young man’s case he was no exception. The beautiful youth stirred in the governor cruel and unnatural passions, and every day for a year after his capture Markianos had Ioulianos brought to him. At times he would flatter and caress the saint, promising him wealth and luxury and fame and honour if he would submit to sacrifice to the pagan gods. At other times he would threaten Ioulianos with a thousand tortures, each more agonising than the one before. But none of these swayed the young man, who remained steadfast in his confession of Christ and adamant in his refusal to honour idols.

The governor, hoping to shame and confuse the youth into obedience, each day had him stripped and trussed behind a camel, and dragged through the streets of Tarsos to the jeers of the crowds. But this procession had the opposite effect of what he intended, for Ioulianos took the opportunity to hold his head high and offer words of encouragement to the other Christians of the city. When he was led within the præcinct he was subjected to every manner of torture. The executioners tore his flesh and gouged deep gashes in his sides. They lay his bones bare and even exposed his internal organs to view. They used the lash and the scourge upon him. They used fire and brands. They used blades and hooks – and all to the utmost cruelty; yet for an entire year the youth spoke nothing different than what he had done. At the end of the year of these torments he was brought to the city of Ægeæ on the Cilician coast for execution.

The Orthodox tradition has it that when they reached Ægeæ the governor found his mother and brought him before her son, hoping that when she saw him brought so low she would encourage him to reconcile with the state and offer incense to the idols. Markianos did not know that the mother of Ioulianos was Christian. Instead, however, she gave him words of encouragement, and urged him to run the course of martyrdom to the end. When word of this reached the governor, he ordered the woman to be seized and beheaded.

Markianos’s pride had been broken against this youth whose resolve was as unshakeable as a rock. He devised for Ioulianos an execution which was reserved for the very worst of crime under Roman law – that of parricide. He had the martyr tied in a sack that was half-filled with sand along with venomous vipers and scorpions, and then cast into the sea. In this manner Saint Ioulianos attained the victory, and was crowned with the laurel of martyrdom and welcomed into the company of saints in heaven. The sea bore the body of the martyr lightly, and cast him up on the shores of Alexandria in Ægypt, where local Christians had him borne decently into the Church and tended reverently. His relics were taken to Antioch during the time of Saint John Chrysostom, who preached a stirring and heartfelt homily in the martyr’s memory at his new shrine, on the occasion of his translation. Since that time, Saint Ioulianos has been devoutly remembered by Antiochian Christians as one of their beloved local saints, and many wonders of healing and exorcisms attended the shrine of the martyr, by the power of his prayers to Christ. Wondrous and glorious athlete Ioulianos, bold sufferer of many torments for the sake of Christ our God, beseech Him Who only loves mankind to grant us great mercy!

Apolytikion to Saint Ioulianos of Tarsos, Tone 4:

Your holy martyr Ioulianos, O Lord,
Through his suffering has received an incorruptible crown from You, our God.
For having Your strength, he laid low his adversaries,
And shattered the powerless boldness of demons.
Through his intercessions save our souls!