Nine Holy Martyrs of Cyzicus

     End of the 3rd century. The small port city of Cyzicus on the Sea of ​​Marmara is a city with strong pagan traditions. It was here that, without agreement, nine Christians from different parts of the empire gathered. Soldiers, peasants, clergy — from young men to old men. They had one thing in common: the desire to speak openly about their faith, without hiding.

     Local authorities responded quickly. All nine were captured and required to publicly recant. For a week they were tortured one by one and again asked to renounce—one word was enough. But they were silent. Then the governor pronounced a sentence: to drag the convicts through the thorny bushes and then behead them. An unnamed Christian townsman bought the bodies from the guards and buried them outside the city limits.

     Four decades have passed. When the repressions against Christians stopped, the Cyzicus community opened the burial. The bodies, according to eyewitnesses, did not decay. They were moved under the roof of a specially built building. Soon the sick began to come there, and some of them, judging by the surviving descriptions, were recovering.

     A short break occurred under Emperor Julian: the city pagans complained to him about the Christians, he took their side and put the local bishop under lock and key. But Julian died in the war before he could consolidate the changes, and the bishop was released.

     The story of Cyzicus came to Russian soil thanks to the monk Stephen, who brought a particle of relics from Palestine. In 1687, Kazan suffered from fever. Stephen founded a monastery, and the epidemic subsided. Church writer Dimitri Rostovsky noted that it was precisely against “shaking diseases,” that is, fevers, that these saints were considered special intercessors. He also described the story of their death and composed a liturgical text in their honor.

     The Kazan Vvedensky Kizichesky Monastery still stands to this day. The nine — Theognis, Rufus, Antipater, Theostichus, Artema, Magna, Theodotus, Faumasius and Philemon — the church commemorates on April 29.

Memorial Day May 12, 2026.