Elpidius of Chersonesus

Holy Hieromartyr Elpidius of Chersonesus was a bishop and one of the seven bishops of Chersonesus who brought the Gospel to the northern lands of the Black Sea, from the Danube to the Dnieper, including Crimea, and received martyrdom in the fourth century.

After the martyrdom of Bishop Basil, in 309, three of his fellow workers, the bishops Eugene, Elpidius and Agathodorus, who were preaching in the Hellespont region, heard the news and came to Chersonesus to carry on his work. They laboured much for the salvation of souls. All three shared the fate of their predecessor: enraged pagans stoned them to death on 7 March 311.

Later the bishops Eferius and Capito served at Chersonesus, and the preaching of all these saints strengthened the faith in the city, which became a spiritual centre from which Christianity spread north toward Rus. Saint Prince Vladimir was baptized at Chersonesus in the year 987.

Saint Elpidius is commemorated on 7 March, together with the other bishops of Chersonesus, that is 20 March in the new style, and on 28 December in the Synaxis of the Saints of Crimea.