Nikostratos of Rome

Holy Martyr Nikostratos of Rome was the imperial treasurer in the time of Diocletian and Maximian, who believed in Christ and was numbered among the martyrs gathered around Saint Sebastian of Milan.

The conversion

Sebastian, born at Narbonne in Gaul and educated at Milan, was commander of the palace guard under Diocletian and Maximian (284-305), a secret Christian and helper of his brothers in the faith. The brothers Marcellinus and Mark, imprisoned, had been shaken in their resolve by the tears of their pagan parents, Tranquillinus and Marcia, and of their wives and children. Sebastian went to the imperial treasurer Nicostratus, in whose house they were held, and delivered a fervent sermon, urging them not to drop the banner of their victories because of women's tears. He persuaded the brothers to go to martyrdom. His word shook all who were present: his face shone like an angel's. Zoe, Nicostratus's wife, who had lost her speech six years before, threw herself at his feet and by signs begged him to heal her; the saint signed her with the cross and she spoke at once, glorified Jesus Christ and said that she had seen an angel with an open book from which Sebastian had read the sermon. Then all who were present believed. Nicostratus took the chains from Marcellinus and Mark and proposed that they flee, but they refused. Nicostratus and his wife asked for baptism, and Sebastian advised them to see that baptism be given to as many people as possible, so Nicostratus asked Claudius, head of the prisons of Rome, to send to his house all the prisoners, and they were baptised by the priest Polycarp. Tranquillinus, Marcellinus and Mark were ordained by Gaius priest and deacons, and Nicostratus, his wife Zoe, his brother Castorius, Claudius, his son Symphorian and his brother Victorinus gathered in the emperor's palace, at the house of the secret Christian official Castulus.

The martyrdom

First seized was Saint Zoe, while praying at the tomb of the Apostle Peter. She confessed the faith with courage and was hung by the hair over putrid refuse, and her body was thrown into the Tiber. Then the priest Tranquillinus suffered, stoned. Nicostratus, Castorius, Claudius, Victorinus and Symphorian were seized on the river bank, as they were searching for the bodies of the martyrs. They were taken to the prefect and refused to sacrifice to the idols. Then stones were tied to their necks and they were thrown into the sea. Tiburtius followed, betrayed by Torquatus, and Castulus, buried alive, while Marcellinus and Mark had their feet nailed to a stump, stood all night in prayer and in the morning were pierced with spears. Sebastian was the last. The emperor Diocletian questioned him himself and ordered him shot with arrows. Irene, Castulus's wife, came by night to bury him and found him alive; after healing the saint went out in the emperors' way and rebuked them, and Diocletian ordered him killed at the hippodrome. The body was thrown into a refuse ditch, then, by a command shown in a dream to the Christian Lucina, it was buried in the catacombs. Lives of theirs were written by Saint Demetrius of Rostov.

Their memory is kept on 31 December, in the new style.