Honoratus

Holy Martyr Honoratus is numbered among the twelve clergy of Holy Hieromartyr Stephen, Pope of Rome, who were put to death by beheading in the persecution of the year 257, in the time of Emperor Valerian. Of Honoratus the calendar says only that he is among them.

Stephen held the see of Rome between 253 and 257 and fought zealously against the heresy of Novatus, who taught that those returning from heretics should not be received. Hiding in the time of persecution, he baptised many pagans, among them the military tribune Nemesius, who believed 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 baptised. All were burned, and their remains were buried by Pope Stephen.

At the same time his twelve clergy were put to the sword: Bonus, Faustus, Maurus, Primitivus, Calumniosus, John, Exuperantius, Cyril, Theodore, Basil, Castellus and Honoratus, with Tertullinus, who had been converted by Stephen. The pope was at last brought before Emperor Valerian, who condemned him to beheading 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 the soldiers who came while he was teaching the Christians.

He is commemorated on 15 August (new style). The name of Honoratus is not included in the present calendar of the Russian Church.