Polyeuctus of Mesukevi

Holy Martyr Polyeuctus of Mesukevi (Georgia) was one of seventeen Georgian nobles, led by St Sukhius, who became Christians in the apostolic age and died as martyrs on Mount Sukaketi, in the time of the pagan ruler of Caucasian Albania.

Sukhius and his sixteen companions were great officials at the court of the ruler of Caucasian Albania (today Azerbaijan). Accompanying his daughter Satenik, the wife of the Armenian king Artaxias (88-123), they came to Artashat, the ancient capital of Armenia. There a Greek Christian, Chrysos, preached, enlightened and ordained priest by the Holy Apostle Thaddeus. The officials believed in the Saviour and resolved to dedicate their lives to the service of God. All seventeen followed Chrysos to Mesopotamia and, at the baptism in the waters of the Euphrates performed by the priest, they were found worthy to see the Lord of glory, Jesus Christ. At the place of baptism they raised an honoured cross, which they called the Cross of the Annunciation.

At baptism the priest Chrysos gave them new names: to the eldest, Sukhius (in place of Bagadras), and to his companions Andrew, Anastasius, Talale, Theodoritus, Ivkhirion, Jordan, Condratus, Lucian, Mimnenos, Nerangios, Polyeuctus, Jacob, Phocas, Domentian, Victor and Zosimas. After the martyrdom of Chrysos, Sukhius became the spiritual guide of the brotherhood, and all moved to a wild place, on Mount Sukaketi, near the mountain village of Bagrevandi. There the former nobles led a life of strict asceticism, feeding on the little mountain vegetation and drinking cold spring water.

The new ruler of pagan Albania, Datianos, learned that his former officials had become Christians and withdrawn into solitude. He sent Barnabas to them with soldiers to persuade them to return to court and to their former faith. They rejected all persuasion. On the order of Barnabas, Sukhius and his companions were nailed to the ground in the form of a cross and burned. As he died, Condratus and then the other martyrs began to sing Psalm 21. Their bodies were then hacked and scattered over Mount Sukaketi, whence they are called the martyrs of Mesukevi (more exactly, of Sukaketi). This took place in the year 123, according to other sources in 130, while an eleventh-⁠century Athonite manuscript from Iviron says 100.

Their remains lay unburied and incorrupt until the fourth century, when the local Christians laid them in tombs; the names of the saints appeared written on the rock. The Holy Hieromartyr Gregory the Illuminator of Armenia built a church at that place and founded a monastery, and later a healing spring flowed there.

St Polyeuctus is commemorated on 28 April and on 22 November (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the Saints of Alania, in the new style.