Vah

Holy Great Martyr Bacchus (Vah) was an officer in the Roman army, a close companion of Emperor Maximian, and was martyred together with the Holy Great Martyr Sergius at the beginning of the fourth century. The two are commemorated on 7 October (new style).

According to tradition, Sergius and Bacchus were commanders in the guard and loved by the emperor, until they were denounced as Christians who refused to sacrifice to the gods. They were stripped of their military insignia, dressed in women's clothes and paraded in shame through the city, then sent to Syria, to the governor Antiochus. There Bacchus was beaten so cruelly that the flesh fell from his bones and his body was torn open, and he gave up his soul under the hands of the torturers. Sergius was forced to continue the journey, in shoes studded with nails, and was then beheaded at Rusafa in Syria, which took the name Sergiopolis. Their relics made the city a great pilgrimage site, and their veneration spread throughout the East and the West. A part of their relics is kept at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Craiova.