Maurice of Apamea

Holy Martyr Maurice of Apamea was a military commander in Apamea of Syria and suffered in the year 305, in the time of the emperor Maximian Galerius (305-311), together with his son Photinus and seventy of his soldiers. Of the soldiers only two names are known: Theodore and Philip.

During the persecution the pagan priests denounced to the emperor that Maurice was spreading faith in Christ. Brought to trial with his son and his soldiers, he confessed with firmness and bowed neither to flattery nor to threats. They were beaten without mercy, burned with fire and torn with iron hooks. The young Photinus, who bore the torments steadfastly, was cut down with the sword before his father's eyes. Not even this heavy trial broke Maurice, who rejoiced that his son had received a martyr's end.

Then they devised a still more refined torment: they led them to a marshy place full of clouds of mosquitoes, wasps and horseflies, tied them to trees and smeared their bodies with honey. The insects stung them without pity, and hunger and thirst wore them down. For ten days they endured it, without ceasing to pray and praise God, until the Lord brought their sufferings to an end. The persecutor ordered their heads to be cut off and the bodies left unburied, but the Christians secretly buried the holy bodies by night, on the very place of their suffering.

Maurice is commemorated on 7 March, in the new style, and his account is also found in the Lives of the Saints by Saint Dimitry of Rostov.