Also known as Trophimus · Theophilus · and thirteen companions
Trophimus, Theophilus, and thirteen others of Lycia who confessed Christ before the governor and, after the breaking of their limbs and other torments, were beheaded under Diocletian.
Feast Day
July 23
Draft
Draft — pending review. Not yet verified for publication.
The Holy Martyrs Trophimus, Theophilus, and the Thirteen with them, of Lycia
Life
The Holy Martyrs Trophimus, Theophilus, and thirteen others with them were a group of fifteen Christians who suffered in Lycia, a province of Asia Minor, during the persecution under the emperor Diocletian (reigned 284-305). They are commemorated together on July 23 as a single company of martyrs.
Brought to trial, they openly confessed themselves Christians and refused to offer sacrifice to the idols. According to the synaxarion accounts, they endured a succession of torments and were finally beheaded, having held firm in their confession to the end.
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Martyrdom
When they were brought before the authorities, the martyrs would in no way deny Christ or sacrifice to the idols, and so were subjected to various tortures. The accounts relate that the legs or knees of the martyrs were broken and that they were then cast into a fire. By tradition they came out of the flames unharmed, and they glorified Christ all the more for their deliverance.
Unable to break the resolve of the confessors through torture, their persecutors put them to death by beheading. The Orthodox Church in America places their suffering generally within the reign of Diocletian (284-305), while the Prologue of Ohrid and related summaries give the year as 308.
Commemoration
Trophimus and Theophilus are the two named members of the company; the remaining thirteen are commemorated collectively and are not individually named in the surviving accounts. For this reason the group is observed as a single, undifferentiated commemoration of the martyrs of Lycia.
Their feast falls on July 23, a day on which the Church also commemorates the Hieromartyr Apollinaris, bishop of Ravenna, who is honored separately.
