Holy Martyrs Maurikios and the Seventy at Apameia

Russian Orthodox icon of Saint Maurikios

Today, the twenty-seventh of December, the third day of the Nativity Feast of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, is the feast-day in the Holy Orthodox Church of Saint Maurikios and the seventy soldiers who were martyred for Christ at Apameia (now Qal‘at al-Maḍîq in Syria). They are also commemorated in the OCA on the twenty-second of February, and in the Greek church on the first of July. These military martyrs suffered during the reign of Emperor Maximianus Herculius. Besides Maurikios and his son Phōteinos, two of these soldiers are known by name to human history: Theodōros [Gk. Θεόδωρος] and Philippos [Gk. Φίλιππος]. The names of the rest are known by God and sung in praise by the host of angels.

Saint Maurikios [Gk. Μαυρίκιος, Ar. Mûrîs موريس] was apparently a native of Apameia. He served in the Imperial Guard – a position of high honour and trust. As Emperor Maximianus was passing through the city of Apameia, possibly on campaign against the Persians, he overheard a rumour that his guardsman Maurikios and his family were, in fact, secretly Christians. In particular, the pagan priests complained that Maurikios had been spreading his belief in Christ among the Roman Army. Maximianus summoned Maurikios before him, along with his entire unit of seventy men, and attempted to force them to make sacrifices to the pagan gods. Maurikios refused to do so, and to a man so refused all of his soldiers as well. Instead, they firmly confessed Christ crucified and risen again. Neither threats nor blandishments were of any avail to the Emperor in enforcing the pagan worship on these men.

Saint Maurikios and his men were stripped of their belts, the insignia of their rank. They were publicly humiliated and thrown into prison. After three days the Emperor called them before him, and they again confessed their faith in Christ. Maximianus then gave them over to the executioners to be tortured. They were flogged mercilessly with whips, and then cast into a fire to burn their flesh. Then they were hung from wooden poles and their flesh lacerated with iron hooks. Because Maurikios was the commander of the men, Maximianus wished to make an example of his family, and had his innocent son Phōteinos [Gk. Φωτεινός] put to death by the sword. But even this cruel tyranny of the emperor did not shake the faith of Maurikios, who knew that his son had thus joined the company of martyrs.

Seeing that even the death of his only son had failed to sway Maurikios, in a fury the wicked emperor ordered that the men be led to a marsh that lay at the confluence of two rivers, where there were many biting and stinging insects – wasps and midges and mosquitoes. The emperor ordered that they be stripped naked and their bodies smeared with honey, and then tied to trees and left to be eaten alive by the insects. To further torment Maurikios, Maximianus had the headless body of his son flung into the swamp before his eyes. God’s seventy holy martyrs endured the bites and stings of the pests for ten whole days and nights, and they were weak from thirst and from exposure, but none of them begged for mercy nor recanted Christ. When at the end of the ten days of their suffering the emperor returned and found them alive, he ordered his soldiers to behead them with the sword, and in this way the thrice-blessed martyrs departed to the infinitely more honourable court of their Heavenly Lord. The emperor wanted to leave their bodies exposed, for he did not want them to be given a decent burial. However, local Christians came and claimed the bodies of these martyrs, and had them buried and commemorated in the place of their execution.

The beloved memory of these holy martial martyrs of the Church was promulgated in particular by Saint John Cassian, who spoke highly of their martyrdom to his disciples and spiritual sons in the Ægyptian desert. Over time, Saint Maurikios’s legend took on a local flavour, and he became a patron of Thēbai, with the historical details of his life being tailored to that place. Later legends in the Middle Ages placed his martyrdom in Switzerland, in the ancient Roman city of Agaunum. As a result, in the Western Church in particular, ‘Saint Maurice’ is remembered as an Ægyptian and as a patron of the Swiss Guard, and he is often traditionally depicted as a dark-skinned, African Roman soldier. Holy martyr Maurikios, and the seventy faithful soldiers whose duty to Christ exceeded even your duties to any earthly kings, pray unto Christ our Lord for our salvation!

Apolytikion to Saint Maurikios and the Seventy at Apameia, Tone 4:

Your holy martyrs O Lord,
Through their sufferings have received incorruptible crowns from You, our God.
For having Your strength, they laid low their adversaries,
And shattered the powerless boldness of demons.
Through their intercessions, save our souls!