Seleucus of Caesarea in Palestine

Holy Martyr Seleucus of Caesarea in Palestine was a former soldier and suffered in the year 309, in the group of St Pamphilus, in Caesarea of Palestine, in the persecution of Diocletian.

Witness to the martyrdom of the young Porphyrius, servant of the priest Pamphilus, burned at the stake because he had asked leave to bury the bodies of the condemned, Seleucus, a devout Christian, welcomed with joy the struggle of the martyrs. Before the execution he approached Pamphilus and told him how Porphyrius had died. He was seized on the spot by the soldiers and, by order of the governor Firmilian, put to the sword with the condemned.

Pamphilus, born in Berytus and formed at Alexandria, laboured much at correcting the texts of the New Testament; with him suffered the deacon Valens, Paul, five young Egyptians who gave the names of the prophets Elias, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Samuel and Daniel, the old Theodulus, crucified, and Julian of Cappadocia, burned. The bodies of the twelve lay four days unburied, untouched by beasts and birds.

St Seleucus is commemorated on 1 March (a movable date), in the new style.