Julian of Constantinople

Holy Martyr Julian of Constantinople suffered for the holy icons in the year 730, in the time of the iconoclast emperor Leo the Isaurian (717-741), together with Marcian, John and others. The Church commemorates him on 22 August (new style).

The martyrs Julian, Marcian, John, James, Alexis, Demetrius, Photius, Peter, Leontius, the patrician Maria, the protospatharios Gregory and others suffered for the icons. The emperor deposed Saint Patriarch Germanus (715-730) from the patriarchal throne, sending him into exile, and unlawfully put in his place the iconoclast Anastasius (730-753). By the emperor's order all icons were to be removed from churches and houses and destroyed. In Constantinople, above the so-⁠called Bronze Gate, there stood from the time of Emperor Constantine the Great a wonderworking icon of the Saviour, made of bronze. The emperor and Patriarch Anastasius ordered it taken down. A soldier leaned a ladder and climbed up. The assembled people were outraged at this sacrilege. Among the crowd was the patrician Maria, a woman of noble birth, and she, and after her many others, rushed to the ladder and pulled it from the wall, so as not to let the soldier touch the icon. The ladder collapsed, the soldier fell and was killed. This was on 19 January 730. In the defence of the icon the protospatharios Gregory and the Venerable Martyr Theodosia (commemorated on 29 May) also took part. Learning of it, the emperor at once put to death a multitude of Orthodox, whose names and number only the Lord knows. The protospatharios Gregory also received a martyr's death.

Some of the Orthodox of noble birth, Julian, Marcian, John, James, Alexis, Demetrius, Leontius, Photius and Peter, were shut in prison for about eight months, receiving every day 500 blows. By the power of Christ they remained alive and endured manfully. By order of the emperor their faces were burned with hot iron and their heads were cut off. Saint Maria the patrician, who had not been imprisoned, learning of the execution, willingly accepted a martyr's death. The bodies of the martyrs were buried in the place called Pelagius, near the church of the Holy Martyr Theodore, and were found incorrupt after a hundred and thirty-⁠nine years.