Hermias

Holy Martyr Hermias was a soldier of the emperor, grown old in the army, who suffered in old age for his faith in Christ, according to the Serbian tradition in the year 166, in the time of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. The Serbian Church commemorates him on 31 May by the old calendar (13 June by the new).

The judge, trying in vain to turn him from Christianity and persuade him to sacrifice to idols, ordered his teeth knocked out with stones and the skin of his face stripped with a knife. According to Christian tradition, he was thrown into a fiery furnace, but he stood up, preserved by God's grace, then drank a strong poison given by a pagan priest at the judge's order, but the poison did him no harm. Seeing this, the pagan priest was so astonished that he publicly confessed faith in Christ and was beheaded at once.

Then both of Hermias's eyes were put out, and he said to the judge: "Take these bodily eyes, which see the vanity of the world; I have the eyes of the heart, with which I clearly see the true light." He was hung by his feet, but those who did this to him went blind and staggered around him. Saint Hermias called them to him, laid his hands on them and through prayer restored their sight. Seeing all this, the judge was enraged, drew a knife and cut off Hermias's head. Christians secretly took his body and buried it. They believe that his relics gave healing to the sick.