Martyr 3rd century

Martyrs Julian Eunus, Besas and Macarius of Alexandria

Martyred c. 250, Alexandria

Also known as Julian · Eunos (Kronion) · Beza (Besas) the soldier · Mekaros (Macarius)

Martyrs of Alexandria under the emperor Decius. Julian, crippled and unable to walk, was carried to his confession; his servant Eunus and the soldier Besas, who defended them, and Macarius were all put to death for Christ.

Feast Day

February 27

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Commemorated as

The Holy Martyrs Julian, Eunus, Besas and Macarius of Alexandria

Life

Julian, Eunus, Besas and Macarius were among the Christians put to death at Alexandria during the persecution under the emperor Decius (reigned 249-251), and are commemorated together as a single company of martyrs on February 27. Their sufferings are recorded in a letter of Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, which was preserved by Eusebius in the sixth book of his Church History, making them among the better-documented martyrs of the mid-third-century persecution in Egypt.

Julian was an old man so disabled by gout that he could neither stand nor walk and had to be carried to his trial. Eunus, also called Cronion, was the servant who confessed Christ alongside him; Besas was a soldier executed for defending the martyrs; and Macarius, by tradition a Libyan, was burned for refusing to recant.

Timeline 3 moments Read Hide

249-251 The persecution of Decius The emperor Decius issued an edict requiring sacrifice to the Roman gods, provoking a violent persecution of Christians across the empire. At Alexandria, where Dionysius was bishop, a number of Christians were seized and put to death.
c. 250 Julian and Eunus carried on camels and burned Julian, unable to stand because of his gout, was carried to trial by two companions. One of them denied Christ, but the other, Eunus (Cronion), confessed the faith together with the old man. The two were paraded on camels through the whole city, scourged, and finally burned to death.
c. 250 Besas beheaded and Macarius burned Besas, a soldier who rebuked those insulting the martyrs as they were led away, was arraigned and beheaded by the sword. Macarius, urged by the judge to recant and refusing, was burned alive.

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The martyrdom

According to the account of Dionysius of Alexandria, Julian was a man so afflicted with gout that he could neither stand nor move about, and was carried to his trial by two companions. One of the two who bore him denied Christ, but the other, named Cronion and surnamed Eunus, together with the aged Julian, confessed the Lord. The two confessors were set on camels and led through the entire city, scourged as they went, and at last burned to death in a fierce fire while a crowd looked on.

A soldier named Besas, standing by as the martyrs were led away, rebuked the people who insulted them. For this he was brought to trial in turn and, after contending steadfastly, was beheaded. A man named Macarius, described in the early account as a Libyan, was strongly pressed by the judge to deny his faith; when he would not yield, he too was burned alive.

Sources and commemoration

The principal record of these martyrs is the letter that Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, addressed to Fabius of Antioch, quoted at length by Eusebius of Caesarea in Book VI of his Church History. The same letter names a wider group of Alexandrian Christians who suffered in the Decian persecution, of whom Julian, Eunus, Besas and Macarius form one cluster. Later martyrologies and synaxaria, including the Western tradition represented in Butler's Lives of the Saints, draw on this account.

The Orthodox synaxarion gives the names in the forms Julian, Eunos (Kronion), Beza, and Mekaros, and commemorates the company together on February 27.

Notes

Commemorated together as one company of martyrs.

Sources: OCA Synaxarion (oca.org), Lives of the Saints