Porphyrius the Commander

Holy Martyr Porphyrius the Commander (Stratelates) was a high officer at the court of the emperor Maximian in Alexandria, who became a Christian through the Holy Martyr Catherine and received death for Christ together with two hundred soldiers.

St Catherine, a young learned woman of noble family in Alexandria, had been thrown into prison because she had rebuked Maximian to his face, the co-⁠emperor of Diocletian (286-305), at a pagan feast. The empress Augusta (Basilissa) had heard of the saint's virtues, wisdom and courage and, after a vision in a dream, so wished to see her that she could not sleep. While the emperor was away from the city, she confided in Porphyrius, commander of the army and loyal friend of the emperor, a man of prudence, and asked him to arrange a secret meeting. Porphyrius promised.

By night Porphyrius took two hundred soldiers and went with the empress to the prison; after paying the guards, they entered to the martyr. The empress was amazed at the light of Catherine's face, which shone with divine grace, and fell weeping at her feet. St Catherine spoke to them of the Christian teaching. Porphyrius, who since youth had occupied himself with nothing but military matters, was filled with boundless joy and believed in Christ, together with the two hundred soldiers and the empress. All took a reverent leave of the martyr and went away.

The empress Augusta was beheaded outside the city. Porphyrius took her body by night and buried it with honour. The next morning he and the soldiers who had believed in Christ appeared before the emperor and confessed Christ; the emperor said that he was lost, since he had lost the wonderful Porphyrius. According to another, shorter account, Augusta and Porphyrius, with the two hundred soldiers, confessed Christ before all on the day when Catherine was saved by a miracle from the wheels, and were put to the sword. St Catherine was then beheaded herself; her relics were carried, according to tradition, by angels to Mount Sinai.

The Church commemorates Porphyrius, with the two hundred soldiers and the empress Augusta, on 24 November in the old style, that is 7 December in the new style.