Valens of Caesarea in Palestine

Holy Hieromartyr Valens of Caesarea in Palestine, a deacon, is remembered together with the presbyter Pamphilus and ten other martyrs: Paul, Porphyry, Seleucus, Theodulus, Julian, Samuel, Elijah, Daniel, Jeremiah and Isaiah. All suffered in the persecution raised by Diocletian, in the years 308-309, at Caesarea in Palestine.

Pamphilus, born at Beirut and educated at Alexandria, had been appointed a presbyter in Caesarea. He laboured much at comparing and correcting the texts of the New Testament, corrupted by copyists, and he copied the corrected exemplars and sent them to those who wanted them, thus bringing many pagans to Christ. Through his care a great library of spiritual books was gathered at Caesarea. Blessed Jerome honoured him and thought himself fortunate to hold some of his manuscripts. In proclaiming the faith he was actively helped by the deacon Valens of the church of Aelia (Jerusalem), a man advanced in years who knew Holy Scripture very well, and by Paul, burning with faith and love for Christ. All three were held for two years in prison by the governor of Caesarea, Urban. In the time of his successor, Firmilian, one hundred and thirty Christians from Egypt were condemned and sent to the gold mines of Cilicia, and five young brothers accompanied them to the place of exile. On the way back they were seized at Caesarea and thrown into prison for confessing Christ. The young men were brought to trial before Firmilian together with Pamphilus, Valens and Paul. They had taken the names of the Old Testament prophets, Elijah, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Samuel and Daniel, and asked about their homeland they answered that they were citizens of Jerusalem, meaning the heavenly one. Firmilian knew no such city, since on the site of Jerusalem, destroyed by Titus in the year 70, the emperor Hadrian had built a city then called Aelia Capitolina. He tormented the young men long, trying to learn the location of the unknown city and to make them renounce, but gained nothing, and sentenced them to beheading, together with Pamphilus, Valens and Paul.

Earlier there had suffered Porphyry, the eighteen-⁠year-⁠old servant of the presbyter Pamphilus, gentle and humble, who, learning of the death sentence of the martyrs, asked the governor for permission to bury their bodies after the execution and was burned at the stake. Seleucus, a former soldier, a witness of that martyrdom, came to Pamphilus before the execution and told him of the end of Porphyry; he was seized by soldiers and, by order of Firmilian, beheaded together with the condemned. Theodulus, an elderly servant of the governor and a secret Christian, kissed the martyrs being led to death and asked them to pray for him; he was brought to Firmilian and crucified. The young Julian, a Cappadocian, near Caesarea saw the bodies of the saints left unburied for the beasts, knelt and kissed them; he was seized by soldiers and condemned to be burned. The bodies of the twelve lay unburied four days, and neither beasts nor birds touched them. The pagans, disturbed, allowed the Christians to take them and bury them.

Saint Valens is commemorated, according to the calendar, on 1 March (a movable date).