Julian of Tarsus

The Holy Martyr Julian of Tarsus, also called Julian of Anazarbus or of Cilicia, was a young man of senatorial family who suffered for Christ in the persecution of Diocletian, between 305 and 311. He is not to be confused with Saint Julian who died a martyr with his wife Basilissa.

He was born at Anazarbus in Cilicia, the son of a pagan senator. After her husband's death his mother, the Christian Asclepiodora, moved with the boy to Tarsus, where she baptised him and raised him in the faith. When he was eighteen the persecution began, and Julian was seized. Neither torments, nor threats, nor promises of gifts and honours could make him sacrifice to idols or deny Christ. For a whole year he was led from city to city through Cilicia, questioned and tortured in each.

His mother followed him and strengthened him in the faith. When she was seized, the governor thought she would persuade her son; but she confessed Christ, and the governor ordered her feet cut off. She died of her wounds. Julian was sewn into a sack with sand, snakes and scorpions and thrown into the sea. The waves brought the body ashore, where, according to the account, a pious widow of Alexandria took it and buried it. The relics were later moved to Antioch, to the church that bore the saint's name. At Antioch Saint John Chrysostom preached a homily in his praise, saying that the relics drive out demons and work wonders.

In the West he is honoured especially at Rimini. In 1899 a church in his honour was built at Tsarskoye Selo for a guards regiment, the only one known today with this dedication in the Orthodox Church. He is celebrated on 21 June in the East and on 16 March in the West.