On this day, June 21 according to the Julian Calendar (July 4 civil calendar), the Georgian Orthodox Church commemorates the Venerable Julius the Priest and Julianus the Deacon (V c.).
The venerable Julius the Priest and Julianus the Deacon were brothers by blood. For their virtuous lives, Julius was ordained a priest and his brother a deacon. Burning with sincere desire to spread the Christian faith widely, the Myrmidonian brothers preached in the remote corners of the eastern and western Roman Empire, where many pagan shrines still stood and abundant sacrifices were offered. The blessed Julius and Julianus converted many pagans to the faith of Christ through their grace-filled words and God-granted miracles.
Having come to Constantinople, they obtained from Emperor Theodosius the Younger (408–450) permission to build Christian churches in place of the pagan sanctuaries.
With the blessing of the patriarch and the permission of the emperor, the saints built many churches. When holy Julius sensed that his end was drawing near, he set out to find the site for the hundredth and last church to be built. Coming to the bank of Lake Mukoros, he noticed in the middle of it a beautiful island which, it was said, no one could approach because of the multitude of serpents nesting there. The venerable father decided to build a church there. Standing on his outspread mantle, he floated to the island and erected a cross on the shore; then he commanded all the serpents to gather together and leave the island, yielding this place to the house of God and to the servants of the Lord.
Holy Julius founded upon the island a church dedicated to the Twelve Apostles. At that time his brother Julianus completed the construction of a church near the city of Gavdiani and died there, being buried in the tomb he himself had prepared.
The venerable Julius died on the island and was buried there in the church of the Twelve Apostles that he had built. Many miraculous healings were accomplished at his grave. The blessed brothers entered the heavenly Church in the first half of the fifth century.
May the intercessions of the Venerable Julius and Julianus be with us all.