Thomas of Tiberiopolis

Holy Hieromartyr Thomas of Tiberiopolis was a deacon and received the crown of martyrdom in the year 361, in the time of the persecution of Julian the Apostate.

In the second half of the fourth century a monastic brotherhood flourished in Tiberiopolis, today Strumica. In the persecution of Julian the Apostate, in the year 361, sixteen of its members died for Christ. These are the martyrs of Tiberiopolis: the bishops Theodore and Timothy, the priests Theodore, John, Nicephorus, Peter and Sergius, the deacons Basil and Thomas, the monks Daniel, Eusebius, Hierotheus, Comasius, Socrates, Chariton and Etimasius. About Thomas the page says nothing in particular.

The local people kept their memory. After the First Balkan War, when Strumica passed to Bulgaria, the Greeks who lived in the town moved in 1913 to Kilkis and other places in Macedonia. They took with them a part of the holy relics, the hand of the holy priest Peter, one of the sixteen martyrs, which since then has been in Kilkis, in the church that bears his name. The service in their honour was printed three times, in 1741, 1830 and 1930. In 1967 the sixteen martyrs of Tiberiopolis were proclaimed patrons of Kilkis.

The saints are commemorated on 11 December, following the Greek calendar. They are not included in the present calendar of the Russian Church.