Leontius of Adrianople

Holy Hieromartyr Leontius of Adrianople, a presbyter, is mentioned in the life of the holy hieromartyrs Manuel, George, Peter, Leontius (Leo), bishops, Sionius, Gabriel, John, Leontius and Parodos, presbyters. In the account of Saint Dimitry of Rostov, these holy martyrs came from various parts of the Roman Empire and lived at Adrianople in the time of the emperor Leo the Armenian.

At that time the Bulgarian king Krum laid waste Thrace and Macedonia and came as far as Constantinople; after a three-⁠month siege he took Adrianople and carried into captivity all the inhabitants who survived the slaughter, up to forty thousand people, among them the local bishop, whom the pagan king ordered thrown headlong to the ground and trampled underfoot. Krum perished by an evil death; his successor, Dukum, died soon after, and over the Bulgarians came Ditzeng, a terrible and inhuman ruler. He ordered the bishop of Adrianople, Manuel, to be sawn in two and the saint's arms cut off up to the shoulders, and his holy remains thrown to the dogs. God's anger struck the tyrant with blindness, and soon Ditzeng was killed by his subjects. He was succeeded by Murtagon, who cruelly persecuted the Christians who did not obey the command to renounce Christ; he kept the faithful servants of Christ in prison, tormented them and put them to death in inhuman tortures. The holy bishops George of Develtos and Peter, who were strengthening their flock in the faith of Christ, the tormentor gave over to terrible beatings with rods and then cut off their honourable heads; the same death was received along with the hierarchs by seven Christians; the Christian commanders John and Leontius were also beheaded with the sword; Saint Leontius the eunuch, bishop of Nicaea, was pierced in the belly with the sword by the pagans; Gabriel and Sionius also died by the sword; Parodos, the most devout priest, was stoned.

Many other faithful servants of Christ were beaten and shut in prisons at that time. And not only the savage Murtagon but his successors on the Bulgarian throne cruelly persecuted Christians, who by various torments and painful death won the eternal Kingdom. On the same day is kept also the memory of the holy venerable martyr Anastasius, deacon of the Caves, who reposed at the end of the twelfth century and rests in the cave of the Venerable Anthony.

Saint Leontius is commemorated on 4 February, in the new style.