15/28 October

Martyr Lucian, presbyter of Great Antioch, was born in the Syrian city of Samosat. He was left an orphan at the age of 12. Distributing his possessions to the poor, Lucian went to the city of Edessa, to the confessor Macarius, under whose instruction he read Holy Scripture and from whom he learned the ascetic life. For his pious and zealous dissemination of Christianity among the Jews and pagans, Lucian was ordained a presbyter. St. Lucian opened a school in Antioch, where he gathered together and instructed many disciples. St Lucian undertook intellectual pursuits, and corrected the texts of the Holy Scriptures, which had been distorted by scribes and heretics. (His corrected Greek text of the entire Holy Bible was hidden behind a wall during his martyric struggle and was discovered during the reign of Constantine the Great.) During the persecution under Diocletian, St. Lucian was taken by the wiles of the heretics and sent to prison in Nicomidea, where over the course of 9 years, he strengthened the Christians with him in confession of Faith, convincing them to not fear torture and death.

In prison, St. Lucian reposed, after suffering many terrible tortures and starvation. Chained to his bed, and wanting to commune of the Mysteries of Christ on the Feast of Theophany before his death, the martyr-presbyter served the Bloodless Sacrifice upon his own breast, and all the Christians in the prison communed. The body of the holy martyr was thrown into the sea, but 30 days later, dolphins returned it to the shore. The faithful buried the much-suffering body of St Lucian with honor.