Barulas

Holy Martyr Barulas was a child martyr of Antioch, in the year 303, commemorated together with the deacon Romanus.

In 303 or 304, at the beginning of the persecution of Diocletian, the deacon Romanus of Caesarea in Palestine, who was living at Antioch, encouraged the Christians to stand firm. At a pagan festival he rebuked those who were worshipping idols. Taken prisoner, he was condemned to death by fire and bound to the stake; but rain put out the flames and he was brought before the emperor Galerius, who was then in Antioch. By the emperor's command Romanus's tongue was cut out; tortured in various ways in prison, he was finally strangled. Eusebius speaks of his martyrdom in the Martyrs of Palestine.

The poet Prudentius relates other details and gives Romanus a companion in martyrdom, a Christian named Barulas, a child martyr. On this account several historians, among them Baronius, consider that there were two martyrs named Romanus at Antioch, though more likely there was only the one that Eusebius mentions. Prudentius introduced legendary features, and his connection of the martyrdom of Barulas with that of Romanus is probably arbitrary.

Barulas is venerated as a child martyr, like Quiricus; his commemoration is kept on 18 November, together with that of Romanus. He is a saint of the undivided Church.