Calumniosus

Holy Martyr Calumniosus was one of the clerics of Pope Stephen of Rome, put to death by beheading in the year 257, in the time of the Emperor Valerian. The Church commemorates him on 15 August (new style). He is not commemorated in the present calendar of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Holy Hieromartyr Stephen, pope of Rome (253-257), fought zealously against the heresy of Novatus, who taught that those coming from heresy should not be received. In time of persecution he hid, but he baptized many pagans, among them the military tribune Nemesius, who came to Christ after the saint healed his daughter, Lucilla. Nemesius, made a deacon, and his daughter were put to the sword. Their steward Symphronius, brought by the tribune Olympius to the temple of Mars for torture, melted a golden idol by prayer, after which the tribune, his wife Exuperia and his son Theodulus believed and were baptized. All were burned, and their remains were buried by Pope Stephen.

Then his twelve clerics were beheaded, Bonus, Faustus, Maurus, Primitivus, Calumniosus, John, Exuperantius, Cyril, Theodore, Basil, Castellus, Honoratus and Tertullinus, converted by Saint Stephen. At last Stephen himself was brought to the Emperor Valerian, who condemned him to have his head cut off in the temple of Mars. But through the saint's prayers the greater part of the temple collapsed and the soldiers fled. The hierarch hid in the catacombs (the tomb of Saint Lucina), where he was killed by soldiers who came, while he was teaching the Christians.