Himerius of Jerusalem

Holy Martyr Himerius of Jerusalem was a Byzantine soldier and is counted among the ten soldiers beheaded at Jerusalem with Callinicus during the Arab conquest, around the year 637. His name is tied to no other deeds than this confession.

The story of these soldiers is preserved in an account of their passion (a passio), published by Hippolyte Delehaye in 1904. The city of Gaza fell to the Muslim Arabs, and the Byzantine soldiers who defended it surrendered but were forced to renounce the Christian faith. Because they refused, they were taken to Jerusalem, where Patriarch Sophronius visited them. After some months they refused again, and ten of them, led by Callinicus, were beheaded and buried on 11 November. The other fifty were taken to Eleutheropolis and put to death on 17 December.

The Roman Martyrology commemorates them on two days, 6 November and 17 December, naming all of them as in the account. Himerius is honored on 6 November as a saint of the undivided Church. The sources at hand do not show an Orthodox synodal canonization.