Rusticus of Rome

Holy Martyr Rusticus of Rome is commemorated in the group of the Holy Hieromartyr Hippolytus, bishop of Ostia, the martyrs Censorinus and Sabinus, the virgin Chrysia and twenty other martyrs, who suffered in the third century.

St Censorinus had been the first official in the time of the emperor Claudius II (268-270). Denounced, he was imprisoned for faith in Christ. In prison he raised a dead man in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, after which twenty soldiers, guards of the prison, believed in Christ; together with Censorinus they were beheaded. Then the virgin Chrysia was brought to interrogation, and confessed herself a Christian with courage, and was tormented, then drowned in the sea after cruel torments. St Sabinus was beaten with a heavy hammer, then hung from a tree and burned with fire; in the torments he gave his soul to the Lord.

With St Chrysia there suffered Philiclus, Maximus, Herculinus, Venerius, Styracinus, Mina, Commodus, Hermes, Maurus, Eusebius, Rusticus, Monagrius, Amandinus, Olympius, Cyprus, Theodore, Tribunus, the priest Maximus, the deacon Archelaus and the bishop Cyrinus. St Hippolytus, bishop of Ostia, the port of Rome at the mouth of the Tiber, learning of the torments of the martyrs, though old, came to the trial and rebuked the tormentor for inhumanity, calling him a drinker of blood. The judge, enraged, gave him to torments; after much time they bound him hand and foot and threw him into the sea.

The name of Rusticus is not found in the present calendar of the Russian Church. He is commemorated on 12 February, in the new style.