Commemoration of Sts. Kalistratos and his 49 companions, and Lukianos the Priest

St. Kalistratos was from the city of Chalcedon in Asia Minor.  At the end of the third century, he was a captain serving in the Army of the Emperor Diocletian, who persecuted Christians.  Kalistratos is imprisoned when he is found to be a Christian.  He is placed in a sack and thrown into the sea. Through a Divine miracle, the captain is saved from death.  Witnessing that their captain has been saved, 49 of his friends immediately convert to Christianity.  Together, all 50 Christians are once again thrown to the sea, but once again God’s miraculous power saves them.  They are finally pulled from the water and beheaded, thus meeting their deaths as martyrs.

Lukianos (Lucianus) the Priest, born in Samosata, is known as an eminent preacher of Christianity.  He has been considered the head of the Antiochian School of Theology.  Following his arrest, torture and lengthy imprisonment in the city of Nicomedia, he is martyred in 312 A.D. The edited version of the New Testament’s translation into Greek is ascribed to Lukianos, and is used through the present.  St. John Chrysostom highly regarded him and his work.