Faustus of Alexandria

Holy Hieromartyr Faustus of Alexandria, a deacon, is commemorated in a company of holy martyrs: Gaius, Faustus, Eusebius, Chaeremon, Lucius, Peter and Paul, who suffered in the time of the persecution of the Emperor Valerian. Fragments survive of the letters of Saint Dionysius the Great, Patriarch of Alexandria (247 to 265), to Bishop Germanus and to Domitius and Didymus, quoted by Eusebius of Caesarea in the Church History, which speak of them.

In the time of the Emperor Decius, Gaius, Faustus, Peter and Paul brought Dionysius out of Taposiris. Under Valerian, Dionysius stood with the presbyter Maximus and the deacons Faustus, Eusebius and Chaeremon before Aemilianus, the prefect of Egypt, who ordered them to renounce Christ. They refused and were sent into exile in the village of Cephro, where a Christian community gathered around them. Later Aemilianus moved them towards the Mareotis, but, as Dionysius writes, he, Gaius, Faustus, Eusebius, Peter and Paul were taken from the escort. Dionysius, Gaius and Peter found themselves in the Libyan desert near Paraetonium. According to Eusebius of Caesarea, Faustus survived the persecution of Valerian, but was beheaded later.

These reports may lie at the origin of the tradition that united the martyrs into one company; the names and days vary. The Constantinopolitan synaxarion of the tenth century lists Dionysius, Faustus, Gaius, Peter, Paul, Eusebius and Chaeremon on 3 October. Their day of commemoration most probably comes from that of Dionysius, 3 October. Faustus is commemorated on 17 October (new style).