Jeremiah the Egyptian

Holy Martyr Jeremiah the Egyptian is numbered among the twelve martyrs of Caesarea in Palestine: the priest Pamphilus, the deacon Valens, Paul, Porphyrius, Seleucus, Theodulus, Julian, Samuel, Elias, Daniel, Jeremiah and Isaiah, who suffered in the persecution raised by Diocletian in the years 308 and 309.

Saint Pamphilus, born in Berytus (Beirut), studied at Alexandria and was ordained priest at Caesarea. He laboured much to compare and correct the texts of the New Testament, corrupted by copyists. The corrected copies Saint Pamphilus copied and sent to those who wished to have them, and in this way he brought many pagans to Christ. By his labours and care a large library of spiritual books was gathered at Caesarea. Blessed Jerome honoured him greatly and thought himself fortunate to have found and to keep some of his manuscripts. Saint Pamphilus was actively helped in proclaiming the faith by Saint Valens, deacon of the Church of Aelia, an aged man, an excellent expert in Scripture, and by Saint Paul, burning with faith and love for Christ. All three were imprisoned for two years by Urbanus, governor of Caesarea in Palestine. In the time of his successor, Firmilian, 130 Christians from Egypt were condemned and sent to Cilicia, to the gold mines. Five young brothers accompanied them to the place of exile. On the way back to Egypt they were detained at Caesarea and thrown into prison for confessing Christ. The youths were brought to Firmilian's trial with Pamphilus, Valens and Paul, imprisoned earlier. Calling themselves by the names of the prophets of the Old Testament, Elias, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Samuel and Daniel, to the question about their homeland the youths answered that they were citizens of Jerusalem, that is, of the heavenly Jerusalem. Firmilian knew nothing of a city by this name, for in place of Jerusalem, destroyed by Emperor Titus in the year 70, Emperor Hadrian (117-138) had built a city then called Aelia Hadriana. Firmilian tormented the youths for a long time, trying to learn the location of the unknown city and to make them apostatise; achieving nothing, the governor gave them to be beheaded with the sword, together with Pamphilus, Valens and Paul.

Before this, there had to suffer the servant of the priest Pamphilus, the youth Porphyrius, eighteen years old, gentle and humble. Hearing of the death sentence of the martyrs, he asked the governor for permission to bury the bodies of the condemned after their execution, for which he was put to death and burned on a pyre. A witness of this martyrdom, the pious Christian Seleucus, a former soldier, greeting the feat of the sufferers, approached Pamphilus before the execution and told him of the martyr's end of Saint Porphyrius. He was seized at once by the soldiers and, by Firmilian's order, beheaded with the condemned.

One of the governor's servants, Theodulus, an aged man and a secret Christian, greeting the martyrs led to execution, kissed them and asked them to pray for him. Brought by soldiers to Firmilian's interrogation, he was, by the latter's order, crucified. The youth Julian, a Cappadocian by birth, approaching Caesarea, saw the bodies of the saints thrown unburied to be eaten by beasts. He went up to them, knelt and kissed the bodies of the sufferers. The soldiers standing aside seized him and led him to the governor, who condemned him to burning. The bodies of all twelve martyrs lay four days unburied. Neither beasts nor birds touched them. Disturbed by this, the pagans allowed the Christians to take the martyrs' bodies and bury them.

They are commemorated on 1 March (new style, a movable day).