Urban of Constantinople

Holy Martyr Urban of Constantinople, also called Urban of Nicomedia, is remembered together with Theodore, Medimnus and seventy-⁠seven other men of the clergy. They suffered at Nicomedia in the time of the Arian emperor Valens (364-378 or 379). The Arians then drove the Orthodox bishop Evagrius out of the Church of Constantinople, and Christians who would not join their heresy were thrown into prison and mocked.

The Orthodox, driven to despair, resolved to ask the emperor for protection and sent a delegation of eighty clergymen, headed by Urban, Theodore and Medimnus. Hearing their just complaints, the emperor flew into a rage, but hid his anger. He secretly called the prefect Modestus and ordered him to put the envoys to death. Modestus put them on a ship, first spreading the rumour that they were being sent into exile, and ordered the sailors to set the ship on fire out at sea. The ship, wrapped in flames, drifted on the sea for a time and at last burned to the waterline, with the holy martyrs, near a place called Dacizis (about the year 370).

Saint Urban is commemorated on 18 September, in the new style.