Elias and Companions

Holy Martyrs Elias and Companions (Jeremiah, Isaiah, Samuel and Daniel) were five Egyptian Christians martyred at Caesarea in Palestine in the year 309.

During the persecution of Maximinus, a number of Christians were condemned for life to slavery in the copper mines of Roman Cilicia, and Elias and his companions went to comfort them. On their return to Egypt, in 309, they were stopped at the gates of Caesarea in Palestine and questioned. Having confessed the reason for their journey, they were arrested. The next day, together with Pamphilus, who had also been caught in the persecutions, they were brought before the governor of the province, Firmilian. Accused of being Christians, they were racked and interrogated. Elias and his friends gave their baptismal names and declared their country to be "Jerusalem", a reference to the heavenly Jerusalem of the Christians. Firmilian had them tortured further to find out their true country, and at last, tired of tormenting them, condemned them to be beheaded. When Porphyry, the servant of Pamphilus, asked that their bodies be buried, he was tortured and then burned alive, it being found that he was a Christian. Saint Seleucus saw his death and was overheard praising the firmness with which he bore it.

Their commemoration is kept on 16 February. They are saints of the undivided Church.