Procopius the Reader

Holy Martyr Procopius the Reader (Procopius of Caesarea in Palestine) was a reader of the Church of Caesarea, the first martyr of Palestine, put to death by beheading in 303 by the governor Flavian. He is commemorated on 22 November (5 December).

According to his life, he was born in Jerusalem. He was made a reader in the Church of Caesarea, explained the Word of God to the faithful and translated Holy Scripture into the Syriac language. During his life he healed those possessed by spirits. By order of Flavian, governor of Palestine, he was seized and, refusing to sacrifice to the pagan gods and the emperors, was beheaded.

Eusebius of Caesarea writes of his martyrdom that in Palestine the first martyr was Procopius. Before having experienced prison, he appeared at the proconsul's trial and, at his first appearance, hearing the command to sacrifice to the so-⁠called gods, answered that he knew only One to whom sacrifice should be offered, as He Himself wills. When he was commanded to pour a libation to the four emperors, he spoke a line of the poet which displeased them, that there should be one lord, one king; and, having spoken it, he was beheaded.

His body was carried from Caesarea to his native city, Jerusalem, and buried in a crypt on the top of the Hill of Evil Counsel (today the Givat Hananya or Abu Tor district of East Jerusalem). Later, about 550 to 630, a church was built over this crypt in memory of his martyrdom, and the crypt became the crypt of the church. The crypt and the ruins of the Byzantine three-⁠aisled church, about 17 by 12 metres, survive to this day. In the crypt a grave was found with the Greek inscription Here is buried P[rocopius]. The place is today on the territory of the monastery of Saint Modestus in Jerusalem, which belongs to the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem. The birth and death years 250 and 303 on the record fit only in part: the Serbian and Russian sources give 303 as the year of his death.