Eustathius of Apsilia

Saint Eustathius of Apsilia, martyr, was a great man of Apsilia, in Abkhazia, executed about 740 for the faith, at Harran. He is regarded as the first Abkhazian whose holiness was recognized by the whole Church, Western and Eastern. He is one of the most venerated saints of present-⁠day Abkhazia and is considered its defender and heavenly patron. Our sources give no certain day of commemoration.

Blessed Eustathius was the son of the patrician Marinus, the most noble and first among the Apsilians. He was born in the time of Justinian II. On the eighth day Marinus baptized the child in the ancient church of his chief fortress, Tsibilium, naming him after Saint Eustathius Placidas, a valiant soldier who received the crown of martyrdom at the beginning of the second century in the time of the emperor Trajan.

The saint ruled Apsilia at the beginning of the eighth century. In 738 the Arabs under the command of Suleiman, son of the caliph Hisham, invaded mountainous Apsilia. Eustathius was captured by the Arabs at the taking of the fortress of Sideron, in the region of present-⁠day Tsebelda. For two years the Abkhazian prince was held in captivity in the ancient city of Harran in Mesopotamia. All this time the Arabs tried to force him to convert to Islam. Failing, they put him to death, by decree of the ruler of the country, Suleiman ibn Isam, in the year 740. The grave of the holy martyr became a place of pilgrimage for Christians, who came to the relics of Eustathius and received healing. In many Greek, Latin and Syriac sources he is called the martyr of Harran. According to tradition, the saint built at Tsebelda a church dedicated to the Great Martyr Eustathius Placidas, adorning the altar screen with stone tiles.