Holy Martyr Eusignios of Antioch

Saint Eusignios of Antioch
القديس إوساغنيوس الأنطاكي

The fifth of August in the Holy Orthodox Church is the feast-day of another Antiochian martyr, Saint Eusignios of Antioch, a military veteran and martyr who suffered in the persecutions of Julian the Apostate in 362.

Saint Eusignios [Gk. Ευσίγνιος, L. Eusignius, Ar. Yûsâġniyyûs إوساغنيوس] was born in 252 – though we don’t know about his family, his hagiography describes him as a Christian who did many charitable deeds and had a merciful heart. He was a soldier under the command of Emperor Saint Constantine. After the famous vision in which Constantine looked upwards toward the sun and saw above it a cross made of light, and the words within ‘ἐν τούτῳ νίκα’ – ‘in this (sign), conquer’ – and the dream of Christ visiting him upon the following night, it was Eusignios who was called forward and commanded to interpret the Emperor’s vision and dream, and at whose recommendation the armies of Constantine painted crosses upon their shields and were thus led to victory over his rival Maxentius. This tale is told in several ways, with some versions having Constantine hear the interpretation from all the Christians among his soldiery. But the very name Ευσίγνιος, which means ‘the good sign’ in Greek, may in fact be a reference to this event and to the interpretation of the Sign of the Cross for Constantine’s armies.

Eusignios, having been a native of Antioch, retired from his sixty-year service in the army, under the emperors Diocletian, Maximian Herculius, Constantius Chlorus, Constantine and Constantius II, and returned home. He spent his life in prayer and fasting, attending the Divine Liturgy and distributing what he had among the poor. He lived in this way until he had reached an extreme old age – possibly 110 years old. He came to be trusted by the people of Antioch, and it was not unknown for them to bring disputes before him instead of to the magistrate. In one dispute, he found in favour of one Antiochian who was in the right, but the other man who had wrongly brought the charge became bitter, and nursed a grudge against Eusignios. He reported Eusignios as a Christian to the deputies of the Emperor Julian.

At this time, the Emperor Julian had lately travelled into the East to pursue his fatal war against the Persians. He was at Cæsarea in Palestine when he summoned Eusignios before him. Eusignios was accompanied there by a man named Eustochios, and he encountered a scribe in the court of Julian named Dionysios, who at the martyr’s insistence faithfully recorded everything that followed. When called forward to answer the charge of being a Christian, Saint Eusignios not only proudly proclaimed himself to be such, but he also began to berate the Emperor for his apostasy. Appealing to the example of Julian’s esteemed kinsman Constantine, in detail the saint recounted the wondrous sign which appeared to him in the sky. The implication in Saint Eusignios’s tirade against the Emperor was, indeed, prophetic. Just as the Cross had led Constantine to victory and to life everlasting, so Julian’s forsaking the Cross would prove to be his downfall in this world and the next.

The apostate Emperor did not spare the elderly man, and ordered Eusignios to be beheaded. According to the witness of Dionysios, Eusignios then said: ‘I thank you, Cæsar. Death respected me on the battlefield, in order to find me and strike me now for Christ’s sake. Such an end is worthy of a Christian soldier, and I glorify the Most High that it pleased Him to preserve me for it.’ The sentence was thereupon carried out upon Saint Eusignios, who in this way attained to the victorious crown of martyrdom even in his great old age. Holy Eusignios, beholder and interpreter of wonders, confessor of Christ before the pagan, pray unto Christ our God that our souls may be saved!

Apolytikion for Saint Eusignios of Antioch, Tone 8:

Today the Church honors a man martyred for his piety and devotion:
The sincere and Godly-minded Eusignios the Wise.
She glorifies his spiritual struggles, and cries out fervently:
O Most Merciful One, guard Your servants through his intercessions!