Agapius of Rome

Saint Agapius of Rome was the son of the holy Great Martyr Eustathius and of the holy martyr Theopistia and suffered together with his parents and his brother Theopistus, in the time of the emperor Hadrian. He is commemorated on 3 October.

The conversion of Placidas

Eustathius, before baptism, was called Placidas and was a general under the emperors Titus (79 to 81) and Trajan (98 to 117). Even without knowing Christ, he did works of mercy. One day, hunting, he pursued a stag on his swift horse, which stopped on a high mountain, and Placidas saw between its antlers a shining Cross and on it the Son of God crucified. He heard a voice: "Why do you pursue Me, Placidas?" The Lord told him to go to a Christian priest and receive Baptism. Placidas returned home and told everything to his wife, who had seen the day before, in a dream, that the next day she would go with her husband and sons to Christ. The priest baptized all the family and gave them communion.

The trials

The Lord then foretold to Eustathius the trials to come, like those of Job. Soon all his servants died and all his cattle perished. Impoverished but not losing heart, Eustathius left home secretly with his family and set sail for Egypt. During the voyage the shipmaster, enticed by the beauty of his wife, put Eustathius and the children ashore and kept the woman with him. Going on, at the crossing of a swollen river, Eustathius carried his sons over one at a time; while he carried one, a lion carried off the other into the wilderness, and as he returned for the second, a wolf dragged him into the forest. Losing everything, Eustathius wept bitterly, but understood that God's providence had sent him these misfortunes to test his patience. In the village of Badissos he hired himself out as a labourer and spent fifteen years in unceasing toil. He did not know that shepherds and ploughmen had rescued his sons, who lived near him; nor that the shipmaster had been punished and died, while his wife had remained untouched and lived in peaceful labour.

The family reunited

At that time the emperor Trajan had to wage a hard war. He remembered the brave Placidas and sent soldiers, Antiochus and Acacius, his friends, to seek him. They found him in the village, where he was guarding a field, but did not recognize him until they saw on his neck the scar of a deep war wound. They embraced with tears. Eustathius returned to Rome and was again a general. Many young recruits came, among them two young soldier friends whom he loved, but he did not know they were his sons; they did not know they served under their father's command and were brothers. In one camp the soldiers talked in a tent; the elder told his story, and the younger understood with joy that he had his brother before him. The woman at whose house the tent was pitched overheard their words: she was their mother. Later she asked the commander, Eustathius, to let her follow the army, and in him she recognized her husband. So, by the Lord's great mercy, the whole family was reunited.

Martyrdom

The war ended in victory. The emperor Hadrian (117 to 138), Trajan's successor, wished to celebrate with a sacrifice to the gods. Eustathius was not in the temple. Summoned, he said he was a Christian and gave thanks only to Christ for health, victory and family. The emperor grew angry, demoted him and brought him to trial with all his family, but even there they could not be shaken. They were condemned to the beasts, but the beasts did not touch them. Then the emperor ordered them thrown alive into a bronze bull heated in the fire, in which Eustathius, his wife Theopistia and their sons Agapius and Theopistus received the death of martyrs. After three days, when the fiery tomb was opened, the bodies were found unharmed: not a hair of their heads was burned, and their faces shone. Many believed in Christ. Christians buried the saints' bodies.