Feast of Saint Euplius observed today
The deacon from Catania was arrested, tortured and executed in 304; his relics are kept in a village near Naples.
Today the feast of Saint Euplius is observed. Euplius, remembered as a deacon from Catania in Sicily, was arrested, tried and executed for his Christian faith during the persecutions of the early fourth century.
According to the traditional account preserved in church calendars, Emperor Diocletian sent a commander named Pentagur to Sicily to hunt down Christians who were laying low to avoid arrest. Euplius was accused of carrying a book to secret Christian gatherings and reading from it — the book being the Holy Gospel — and was brought before the civil authorities.
Imprisonment, torture and defiance
After seven days of imprisonment and fasting, Euplius was handed over for torture. When his persecutors beat him with iron rods, he mocked his tormentor and addressed the judge-torturer with defiance, saying: "Madman, do you not see that these torments, by God's help, are like a spider's web to me. If you can, find others, harsher, for these are like a child's plaything to me."
Following the torture he was led to the execution site. Many witnesses to his steadfastness are said to have been moved to embrace the Christian faith. Euplius was killed with a sword and entered the Kingdom of Heaven in the year 304.
Tradition places his wonder-working relics in a village near Naples, where they were venerated in later centuries. Each year his memory is kept alive in liturgical calendars and by local devotion in parts of Italy and among Eastern Christian communities.
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