Mesip

Holy Martyr Meleusippus (Mesip) is one of three twin brothers, born at one birth, who suffered for Christ in Gaul, in the time of the emperor Marcus Aurelius (161-180). The other two are Speusippus (Pevsip) and Eleusippus (Elasip).

They were grandsons of Saint Neonila, of Lingonia (present-⁠day Langres). Before baptism, Mesip saw in a vision a great emperor, holding a sceptre, who enrolled the three brothers in His army and girded them with a soldier's belt, redeemed them from slavery at great price and wrote for them in golden letters eternal freedom, saying to him: "Mesip, I have thought to set you three brothers in My palace." Baptized by Saint Benignus, he smashed together with his brothers the idols of their parents.

When his brothers Pevsip and Elasip, the only ones who spoke against the pagans, were struck on the face by the judge Quadratus, Mesip cried out: "Why do you not strike me too, as you did my brothers?" Hung on the beam and stretched like a string, he mocked the judges, reminding them of the Lord nailed to the Cross. When they were condemned to death by fire, he answered: "Greater happiness will be added to us if we are refined by fire before God and pass from darkness through the flame to the unextinguished light." Thrown into the fire, the brothers remained unharmed and gave up their souls in prayer.

Mesip is commemorated on 16 January, together with his brothers and their grandmother, according to the new calendar.