Isaiah the Egyptian

Holy Martyr Isaiah the Egyptian of Caesarea in Palestine was one of the twelve martyrs who suffered at Caesarea, in the persecution of Diocletian, in the years 308-309. The others were the presbyter Pamphilus, the deacon Valens and the martyrs Paul, Porphyrius, Seleucus, Theodulus, Julian, Samuel, Elias, Daniel and Jeremiah. They are commemorated on 1 March (new style, a movable day).

The Holy Martyr Pamphilus was born in Berytus (Beirut) and studied at Alexandria, then was made a presbyter at Caesarea. He laboured much at comparing and correcting the texts of the New Testament, corrupted by copyists. The corrected copies he transcribed and sent to those who wished to have them, and thus brought many pagans to Christ. Through his care and labour a great library of spiritual books was gathered at Caesarea. Blessed Jerome greatly valued him and counted himself fortunate to have kept some of his manuscripts. In preaching the faith Pamphilus was zealously helped by the deacon Valens, of the church of Aelia, an elderly man and a good student of the Scriptures, and by Paul, burning with faith and love for Christ. The three were imprisoned for two years by Urbanus, governor of Caesarea in Palestine.

In the time of his successor, Firmilianus, a hundred and thirty Christians of Egypt were condemned and sent to Cilicia, to the gold mines. Five young brothers accompanied them to the place of exile, and on the return to Egypt they were detained at Caesarea and thrown into prison for confessing Christ. They were brought to the judgment of Firmilianus, together with Pamphilus, Valens and Paul, who were already in prison. They had taken the names of Old Testament prophets, Elias, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Samuel and Daniel, and to the question about their homeland they answered that they were citizens of Jerusalem, meaning the heavenly Jerusalem. Firmilianus knew of no city of that name, because in place of Jerusalem, destroyed by the Emperor Titus in the year 70, the Emperor Hadrian (117-138) had built a city then called Aelia Capitolina. Firmilianus tormented the young men for a long time, wishing to learn the location of the unknown city and make them renounce the faith. Failing, he gave them over to death by the sword, together with Pamphilus, Valens and Paul.

Earlier there had suffered a servant of the presbyter Pamphilus, Porphyrius, a gentle and humble youth of eighteen. Hearing the sentence of death, he asked the governor's leave to bury the bodies of the condemned after their execution and for this was killed and burned on a pyre. A witness of this suffering was a pious Christian, Seleucus, a former soldier, who, greeting the struggle of the sufferers, approached Pamphilus before the execution and told him of the martyric end of Porphyrius. He was seized by soldiers and, by order of Firmilianus, put to the sword with the condemned. A servant of the governor, Theodulus, an old man and a secret Christian, greeting the martyrs led to death, kissed them and asked them to pray for him. The soldiers took him to Firmilianus and, by his order, he was crucified. The young Julian, a Cappadocian, approaching Caesarea, saw the bodies of the saints, thrown unburied as prey for beasts. He knelt and kissed the bodies of the sufferers. Soldiers standing aside seized him and took him to the governor, who condemned him to burning. The bodies of the twelve martyrs lay four days unburied, untouched by beasts or birds. Disturbed, the pagans allowed the Christians to take the bodies and bury them.