The Holy Martyrs Eusebius and Charalampus, Presbyters of Nicomedia
Life
Eusebius and Charalampus were presbyters of Nicomedia who were put to death during the persecution of the emperor Diocletian, traditionally dated to the year 303. The two priests are commemorated together as martyrs, and their death by fire places them among the many Christians of Nicomedia who suffered in the opening phase of the persecution.
Nicomedia, in Asia Minor, was the eastern imperial capital and became the epicentre of the Diocletianic persecution. The Orthodox calendar keeps the memory of Eusebius and Charalampus on May 31. They are distinct from the Hieromartyr Charalambos of Magnesia, who is commemorated on February 10.
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Historical Context
The persecution under Diocletian began in Nicomedia in 303, when Roman authorities ordered the destruction of the principal Christian church of the city and the burning of the Scriptures. A first edict of 23 February 303 directed that church buildings and sacred books be burned and reduced Christians in imperial service to slavery; a further edict that summer required all Christian clergy to sacrifice to the gods on pain of torture and imprisonment. As presbyters, Eusebius and Charalampus belonged precisely to the clergy these measures targeted.
Nicomedia produced a large number of martyrs in this period. Later liturgical tradition speaks of as many as twenty thousand who died in the city, a figure that modern historians treat as symbolic rather than an exact count. Among the city's better-attested martyrs are its bishop Anthimus, who was beheaded, and Gorgonius, a Christian official of the imperial household.
Veneration
The earliest evidence for the liturgical commemoration of Eusebius and Charalampus is found in the Syriac Martyrology of the year 411, the oldest preserved liturgical calendar in Syriac, compiled at Edessa. There the two presbyters are remembered, together with a band of companions, under an April date; the manner in which the city's martyrs feature has led scholars to propose Nicomedia as the source of the underlying Greek material behind the Syriac calendar.
Witnesses differ on the number of those who suffered with the two presbyters: the early Syriac source names sixty-eight companions, while some later lists give two hundred and sixty-eight. The companion accounts of the date also vary, the present Orthodox commemoration falling on May 31.
