Anthony of Scythopolis

Holy Martyr Anthony of Scythopolis (early fourth century) suffered at Scythopolis in Palestine, among sixty other martyrs mentioned in several calendars. Of their own will they stood before the governor of the region and rebuked his inhuman nature, then overturned and smashed the altars of the gods. The angry pagans beat them to death. The martyrs' bodies were buried by Christians, and later, on the place of execution, a church was built. They are commemorated on 17 May. His name is not included in the present Menologion of the Russian Church.

A short life of the martyrs of Scythopolis is found in an Athonite manuscript. It is possible that they are the same as the six youths mentioned in the work of Eusebius of Caesarea, who, coming to the proconsul Urban, confessed themselves Christians and were beheaded. In the Synaxarion of the Church of Constantinople of the tenth century and in the Typikon of the Great Church of the same century, under 4 May, the commemoration of the martyrs of Scythopolis is found, with the note that the synaxis in their honour is held in the church of the Mother of God at Chalkoprateia, in the chapel of the Holy Apostle James, brother of the Lord. Under 5 May the martyrs' commemoration is noted in the Petrine Synaxarion of the eleventh century and in other synaxaria. The earliest evidence of the veneration of the martyrs of Scythopolis in Rus is their mention in the menologia of the Ostromir Gospel of 1056 and 1057 and in a Gospel of the twelfth century. In the first half of the twelfth century the prose Prologue was translated in Rus, in which, under 4 May, their commemoration was included. In the Great Menaion Reader the commemoration and a verse for the martyrs are placed.