Proclus of Kalipta

Holy Martyr Proclus of Kalipta, a native of the village of Kalipta near Ancyra, suffered in the time of the persecution of the emperor Trajan (98-117), together with the Holy Martyr Hilarius.

Proclus was the first taken into custody. Brought before the governor Maximus, he confessed his faith in Christ without fear. The governor wished to force him to obey the emperor and to sacrifice to the pagan gods. Under torture the martyr foretold to Maximus that soon he himself would be forced to confess Christ as the true God. They made him run behind the governor's chariot, which was going to the village of Kalipta. Exhausted on the road, the saint prayed that the Lord would stop the chariot; by God's power the chariot stopped and no effort could move it. The official sitting in it remained as if turned to stone and motionless until, at the martyr's request, he wrote with his own hand a paper confessing Christ; only then could the chariot continue its way.

The shamed pagan took cruel revenge on Proclus: after many torments he ordered him taken out of the city, bound to a post and shot with arrows. The soldiers who led him to death urged him to submit and so keep his life, but the saint told them to do what they had been commanded. On the way, Proclus's nephew Hilarius met him and, weeping, embraced him and confessed himself a Christian too; the soldiers held him and threw him into prison. Proclus gave up his soul to God in prayer under the rain of arrows, praying for his tormentors.

Hilarius, brought before the judge, confessed his faith with the same boldness as Proclus and, after torments, was condemned to death. They bound his hands and dragged him by the feet through the city, wounded and bloody, and then cut off his head, three days after the death of his uncle. The Christians buried them both in one grave.

St Proclus is commemorated on 25 July, in the new style.