Maximus of Adrianople

Saint Maximus the Martyr of Adrianople was a martyr at Adrianople, on the territory of present-⁠day Turkey, in the time of the persecution of the emperor Maximian Galerius. He died in 310. He is venerated by the Orthodox Church and by the Catholic Church; according to the Russian source the Catholic Church commemorates him on 15 September, and the Orthodox Church on days that depend on the leap year.

He was born in the second half of the third century at Marcianopolis, into an aristocratic family. Together with another noblewoman, Asclepiada (Asclepiodota), he accepted Christianity, becoming an example of pious life and of preaching the Gospel among the pagan townspeople, many of whom followed their example, believing in Christ and receiving baptism.

In 310, during the persecution raised under the emperor Maximian Galerius, Maximus and Asclepiada were seized by order of the governor of Thrace, Tyrus, who tried to force them by torture to renounce the Christian faith. For the prisoners another inhabitant of Marcianopolis, Theodotus, interceded, who also by order of the governor Tyrus was subjected to cruel torments and later put in prison together with Maximus and Asclepiada. Making a journey to Adrianople, the governor Tyrus took the prisoners with him, where he publicly subjected them to still greater torments, but not attaining what he wanted, he ordered Maximus, Theodotus and Asclepiada to be beheaded in the place called Saltis near the city of Philippopolis. According to oral tradition, soon after the killing of the martyrs, the governor Tyrus himself died, struck by lightning at the very judgment seat.