Callinica

Holy Martyr Callinica suffered around the year 250, in the time of the Emperor Decius (249-251), together with the Holy Martyr Christopher and Aquilina. The Church commemorates them on 22 May (new style). They are not included in the present calendar of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The Holy Martyr Christopher lived in the third century. Many accounts circulate about his life and miracles, and his commemoration is honoured both in the Eastern and in the Western Church, above all in Spain, where his help is sought in contagious diseases. Different things are said of his origin: according to some sources he was of the Canaanites, according to others of the Cynocephali. He was a very tall man and of unusual strength, but with the face of a beast. According to tradition, at first he had a handsome appearance, but, in order to escape temptations for himself and those around him, he asked the Lord to give him an ugly face, and so it came to pass. Before Baptism he was called Reprebus ("worthless"). Even before Baptism he confessed faith in Christ and rebuked the persecutors of Christians, for which he was once beaten by a certain Bacchus and bore the beating with humility. Soon after, two hundred soldiers were sent to bring him to the Emperor Decius, as a well-⁠known strong man. Reprebus submitted without resistance. On the way miracles took place: the dry staff in the saint's hand blossomed, and at his prayer the loaves that did not suffice for the travellers multiplied, as the Saviour multiplied the loaves in the desert. The soldiers, astonished by the miracles, believed in Christ and were baptized, with Reprebus, by Bishop Babylas of Antioch.

When he was brought to the emperor, the latter was terrified by his appearance and resolved to make him renounce Christ not by force but by cunning. He summoned two sinful women, Callinica and Aquilina, and ordered them to persuade Christopher to renounce Christ and sacrifice to idols. But they were turned to faith in Christ by Saint Christopher and, returning to the emperor, declared themselves Christians. For this they were subjected to harsh tortures and died as martyrs. Decius condemned to death also the soldiers sent for Christopher, who had believed in Christ. The emperor ordered the martyr thrown into a heated bronze box, but Saint Christopher suffered no pain and remained unharmed. After many cruel torments the martyr's head was finally cut off with the sword, in the year 250, in Lycia. Through his miracles the Holy Martyr Christopher brought up to fifty thousand pagans to Christ, according to the testimony of Saint Ambrose. Later the saint's relics were moved to Toledo, and afterwards to the abbey of Saint-⁠Denis in France.