The Holy Martyrs Marinusand Martha, with their sons Audifax and Habakkuk, the Priest Valentine, Cyrinus, Asterius and many others.

Commemorated July 6 in the Orthodox Christian Menaion

From the Prologue

They allsuffered in the time of the Emperor Claudius Flavius in Rome,in the year 269. Marinus and Martha were rich Persians, who had sold all their goods in Persia and gone with their sons to Rome to venerate the relics of the holy apostles and other martyrs. When the Emperor asked them why they had come such a distance, forsaking their household gods to seek the dead in Rome, they replied: 'We are servants of Christ, and are come to venerate the holy apostles whose immortal souls are alive with God, that they may be our intercessors with Christ our God.' Cyrinus was thrown into the Tiber, whence Marinus retrieved his body and buried it. The priest Valentine was committed to a General Asterius, whose task it was to urge him to deny Christ. But Valentine healed Asterius's daughter, who had been blind for two years, by his prayers, and then baptised Asterius and his whole household. These all, in divers ways, received torture and death for Christ the Lord, who welcomed them into His immortal kingdom to rejoice eternally.

From The Prologue From Ochrid by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich
©1985 Lazarica Press, Birmingham UK




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