Comasius of Tiberiopolis

Holy Venerable Martyr Comasius of Tiberiopolis was one of the sixteen martyrs of Tiberiopolis who died for Christ in the year 361, in the persecution of Julian the Apostate. The Azbyka page honours them all together.

In the second half of the fourth century a monastic brotherhood flourished at Tiberiopolis, today Strumica. In 361 sixteen of its members received death for Christ: the bishops Theodore and Timothy, the priests Theodore, John, Nicephorus, Peter and Sergius, the deacons Basil and Thomas, and the monks Daniel, Eusebius, Hierotheus, Comasius, Socrates, Chariton and Ethimasius.

The local people kept their memory. After the First Balkan War, when Strumica passed to Bulgaria, the Greeks living in the town moved in 1913 to Kilkis and other places in Macedonia. They took with them a part of the holy relics, the hand of the priest Peter, one of the sixteen martyrs, which since then has been kept at Kilkis, in the church that bears this martyr's name. The service in their honour was printed three times, in 1741, 1830 and 1930. In 1967 the sixteen martyrs of Tiberiopolis were proclaimed patrons of Kilkis.

Saint Comasius is commemorated on 11 December, according to the Greek calendar, and their names are not in the present calendar of the Russian Orthodox Church.