Martyr Chrysogonus the Teacher of the Greatmartyr Anastasia

Commemorated on December 22

Saint Chrysogonus was the teacher of the Great Martyr St Anastasia. When Diocletian learned that the prisons of Rome were overcrowed with Christians who resisted torture, he ordered them all to be killed in a single night, and for Chrysogonus to be sent to him at Aquileia. St Anastasia followed her teacher at a distance.

The emperor interrogated Chrysogonus personally, but could not make him renounce his faith. Therefore, he had him beheaded and thrown into the sea. The body and severed head of the holy martyr were carried to shore by the waves. There by divine Providence, the relics were found by a presbyter named Zoilus who placed them in a coffer, and concealed them at his home.

St Chrysogonus appeared to Zoilus and informed him that Sts Agape, Chione and Irene (April 16), three sisters who lived nearby, would soon endure martyrdom. He told him to send St Anastasia to them to encourage them. St Chrysogonus foretold that Zoilus would also die on the same day. Nine days later, the words of St Chrysogonus were fulfilled. Zoilus fell asleep in the Lord, and St Anastasia visited the three maidens before their torture. When these three martyrs gave up their souls to the Lord, she buried their bodies.







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