Eight Martyrs of Caesarea in Palestine

The Eight Martyrs of Caesarea in Palestine suffered in the year 362, in the time of the Emperor Julian the Apostate (361-363). When the emperor's order came that all the faithful should deny Christ and worship the pagan gods, they not only did not obey, but went through the city crying that Christ should be honoured as the only true God.

The pagans seized them and threw them into prison, then they were condemned and gladly received martyrdom: they were beheaded, going up to Christ, whom they had loved from infancy. The Church at first honoured them on 15 March. In some synaxaria their number rises to thirty-⁠five or even fifty; one of the eight, Timolaus, from Pontus, is said to have suffered around 305 at Caesarea. They are commemorated on 24 March, by the church calendar of the Church of Greece.