Sergius and Bacchus

The holy martyrs Sergius and Bacchus were two Christian Roman officers, killed for the faith in the first centuries and venerated very early in East and West. They are commemorated on 7 October.

The passion

Their story is found in the Greek text called the Passion of Sergius and Bacchus, which sets the events in the time of the emperor Galerius (305-311), though it contains contradictions and anachronisms that make dating difficult; the text seems to have been written around the middle of the fifth century. According to the account, Sergius and Bacchus were Roman citizens and high-⁠ranking officers, much loved by the emperor, until it was learned that they were secret Christians. They were discovered when they tried not to accompany an official into a pagan temple with his guard. Because they refused to sacrifice to Jupiter in the presence of Galerius, they were humiliated in public: chained, dressed in women’s clothes and paraded through the town. Galerius sent them to Barbalissos, in Mesopotamia, to be tried by Antiochus, the commander there and an old friend of Sergius. Antiochus could not make them renounce the faith, and Bacchus was beaten until he died. The next day, the spirit of Bacchus appeared to Sergius and encouraged him to stand firm, so that they might be together forever. In the following days Sergius was cruelly tortured and then killed at Resafa, where his death was accompanied by miraculous events.

Veneration

Their veneration dates from the fifth century. At Resafa, renamed Sergiopolis, a shrine was raised for Sergius, first of mudbrick, then, in 518, of stone, which was visited by notable figures, among them the emperor Justinian. In the Byzantine Empire they were honoured as protectors of the army. Justinian built at Constantinople, around 527, a great monastery church, known today as the Little Hagia Sophia, in their name. Tradition says that in the time of the emperor Justin, his nephew Justinian, accused of plotting and condemned to death, was saved after Sergius and Bacchus appeared to Justin and vouched for his innocence; in gratitude Justinian vowed to build a church in their honour. Sergius was greatly loved in Syria and Christian Arabia. The close friendship of the two is much emphasized in their lives, which makes them one of the best-⁠known examples of paired saints.