Today the Orthodox Church honors the memory of Saint Polychronios the Hieromartyr.
Hieromartyr Polychronios received a careful Christian upbringing from his parents and became a great teacher of the Christian faith. He went to Constantinople, where he was ordained a Deacon and a Presbyter. His concern was for the people of his parish to know the true faith and to live consciously the doctrines of the Orthodox Church.
Both his stability and the miracles that the grace of the Holy Spirit performed through Saint Polychronios, caused the envy and indignation of the emperor Constantius, an Arian supporter, who subjected the Saint to many and terrible pressures with persecutions and exiles.
Because of his strong resistance to all the tortures, Arian supporters conspired and succeeded in killing him. So, while he was officiating, a group of heretics attacked the Church and stabbed him on the Holy Altar Table.
Countless Christians, even today, in the 21st century, despite the proclamations of human rights and the struggle for basic freedoms, live horrible tortures and become martyrs of the Christian Faith both in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Source: Church of Cyprus
