Maurice, Photinus, Theodore and Philip

The Holy Martyrs Maurice, Photinus, Theodore and Philip suffered at Apamea in Syria in the year 305, in the reign of Emperor Maximian Galerius (305 to 311). Maurice was a military commander in Apamea and was martyred with his son Photinus and seventy soldiers under his command; only two of the soldiers' names are known, Theodore and Philip.

During a persecution, pagan priests reported to the emperor that Maurice was spreading the faith in Christ. Brought to trial, Maurice, his son and his soldiers firmly confessed their faith and yielded to neither entreaties nor threats. They were beaten without mercy, burned with fire and raked with iron hooks. The young Photinus, having endured the tortures, was beheaded by the sword before his father's eyes, and Maurice, happy that his son had been granted the martyr's crown, was not shaken. Then they devised even more subtle tortures: they led them to a swampy place full of mosquitoes, wasps and gnats and tied them to trees, having smeared their bodies with honey. The insects stung them fiercely, and they were weakened by hunger and thirst. They endured ten days without ceasing to pray and glorify God, until the Lord ended their sufferings. The torturer ordered them beheaded and their bodies left unburied, but Christians secretly buried their holy relics at night at the place of their execution. In Slavic usage Saint Maurice and the Theban Legion are commemorated on 22 February (new style; 7 March on the old calendar), and in Greek usage on 27 December.