Faustus

Holy Martyr Faustus is one of the twelve clerics who suffered together with the Holy Hieromartyr Stephen, Pope of Rome, in the year 257, in the time of the Emperor Valerian. His name is not included in the present Menologion of the Russian Church.

Stephen occupied the see of Rome from 253 to 257 and zealously fought the heresy of Novatus, who taught that those returning from heresy should not be received. During the persecution he hid and baptized many pagans, among them the military tribune Nemesius, who turned to Christ after Stephen healed his daughter Lucilla. Nemesius, ordained deacon, and his daughter were put to the sword. Their steward, Symphronius, brought by the tribune Olympius to the temple of Mars for torture, melted a golden idol by prayer, and the tribune, with his wife Exuperia and son Theodulus, believed and was baptized. All of them were burned, and their remains were buried by the holy Pope Stephen.

Then his twelve clergy were beheaded, Faustus among them: Bonus, Faustus, Maurus, Primitivus, Calumniosus, John, Exuperantius, Cyril, Theodore, Basil, Castellus, Honoratus and Tertullin, who had been brought to the faith by Stephen. Finally Stephen himself was brought before Valerian, who condemned him to be beheaded in the temple of Mars. But at the saint's prayer most of the temple collapsed and the soldiers fled. The hierarch hid in the catacombs, in the cemetery of Saint Lucina, where he was killed by soldiers who came while he was teaching the Christians. Faustus is commemorated on 15 August (new style).