✝ the Holy Martyrs Julian, Marcian, John, James, Alexis, Demetrius, Photius, Peter, Leontius, Maria the Patrician, Gregory the Protospatharios, and Those with Them
August 9 / August 22 (Julian Calendar)
On this day, August 9 according to the Julian Calendar (August 22 civil calendar), the Georgian Orthodox Church commemorates the Holy Martyrs Julian, Marcian, John, James, Alexis, Demetrius, Photius, Peter, Leontius, Maria the Patrician, Gregory the Protospatharios, and those with them.
The Holy Martyrs Julian, Marcian, John, James, Alexis, Demetrius, Photius, Peter, Leontius, Maria the Patrician, Gregory the Protospatharios and others suffered in the year 730 for the veneration of the holy icons, in the reign of the Emperor Leo the Isaurian (717–741).
The godless autocrat drove the holy Patriarch Germanus (715–730) from the hierarchical throne and sent him into exile, and in his place he enthroned the iconoclast Anastasius (730–753). In Constantinople, from the days of the pious Emperor Constantine the Great (306–337), there had stood a wonderworking image of the Saviour made of bronze. The Emperor Leo and the iconoclast Patriarch Anastasius gave orders that it be taken down and cast to the ground.
A soldier set a ladder against the wall to carry out the command. But the people who had gathered could not endure to look upon such blasphemy against God. First the noble lady Maria the Patrician came forward from the crowd, and others followed her; they rushed to the ladder and pulled it away from the wall, so that the sacrilegious man should not be permitted to touch the holy thing. The soldier fell and was mortally injured. This took place on the nineteenth of January in the year 730.
Among those who took part in the defense of the icon were the Protospatharios (commander of the army) Gregory, the Venerable Virgin Martyr Theodosia (commemorated on May 29), and others. When the emperor learned what had happened, he had the Orthodox believers slaughtered on the spot. The Protospatharios Gregory also died a martyr’s death, while certain of the Orthodox from among the nobility — Julian, Marcian, John, James, Alexis, Demetrius, Leontius, Photius and Peter — were shut up in prison. There the martyrs received five hundred blows every day for eight months. At last, by command of the emperor, their heads were struck off.
Saint Maria the Patrician was not among the prisoners. But when she learned that the chosen ones of the Lord had been condemned to death, she presented herself of her own will in order to share their lot.
The bodies of the saints were buried in Constantinople, near the church dedicated to the Holy Martyr Theodore. One hundred and thirty-nine years afterwards their incorrupt relics were uncovered.
May the intercessions of the Holy Martyrs Julian, Marcian, John, James, Alexis, Demetrius, Photius, Peter, Leontius, Maria the Patrician, Gregory the Protospatharios, and Those with Them be with us all.