Photinus of Apamea

Holy Martyr Photinus of Apamea was the son of Saint Maurice, the military commander of Apamea in Syria, and suffered in the year 305, under the emperor Maximian Galerius (305-311), together with his father and seventy of his soldiers.

The pagan priests denounced Maurice to the emperor for spreading faith in Christ. Brought to trial, the father, the son and the soldiers confessed the faith loudly and steadfastly, bowing neither to urging nor to threats. They were beaten without mercy, burned with fire and torn with iron hooks. The young Photinus, who bore the torments with constancy, was beheaded before his father's eyes. Not even this brought Maurice down, who rejoiced that his son had been counted worthy of a martyr's death.

The other martyrs were taken to a marshy place full of clouds of mosquitoes, wasps and gadflies, tied to trees and their bodies smeared with honey. The insects stung them cruelly, thirst and hunger tormented them, and they endured ten days, without ceasing prayer and the praise of God, until the Lord put an end to their sufferings. The tormentor ordered their heads cut off and the bodies left unburied, but Christians buried the honoured remains secretly by night on the place of execution. The saints are commemorated on 7 March, a movable day.