Luke of Emesa

Holy Hieromartyr Luke of Emesa was a deacon and suffered with the bishop of the city, Saint Sylvanus, and the reader Mocius, in the great persecution under the Roman emperor Numerian. The Azbyka page gives their story as told by Saint Demetrius of Rostov.

Numerian reigned in 283-284. Emesa is today the city of Homs, in present-⁠day Syria, on the river Orontes, in the region then called Phoenicia. A denunciation of the bishop Sylvanus was made to the governor of the city, and the saint, with the deacon Luke and the reader Mocius, was brought bound before the judge. Seeing that they confessed Christ as the true God and did not honour the idols but reviled them, the governor was enraged. Unable to bend them to idolatry with flattering words, he had them scourged and cast into prison, where they stayed a long time.

Summoning them a second time, the governor ordered them tormented with hunger and thirst, and then condemned them to be torn by wild beasts. Brought to the place of execution, the saints had the beasts set before them, and the soldiers of Christ prayed that the Lord would send them their end right there. Their prayer was heard and the Lord received their souls. The beasts came near the honoured remains but did not touch them. The Christians took them secretly by night, buried the relics and gave thanks to God.

They are commemorated on 11 February, in the new style.