Saints Sergius and Bacchus: customs, prohibitions and belief in healing bone ailments
The Church remembers the Roman officers-turned-martyrs while rural tradition treats the day as the line between autumn and winter—also a time linked to relief for bone and joint ailments.
Today the Orthodox faithful commemorate Saints Sergius and Bacchus, two early Christian martyrs whose story mixes military rank, defiant faith and brutal punishment under the Roman emperor Maximian. The Church marks their memory while many communities keep alive a set of folk customs tied to the same date.
From palace officers to martyrs
According to Christian tradition, Sergius and Bacchus were respected officers in the imperial household of Emperor Maximian. Celebrated for courage and loyalty, they nonetheless refused repeated demands to offer sacrifices to pagan idols after their Christian faith became known. The enraged emperor publicly humiliated them by stripping them of their military garments, dressing them in women’s clothes with iron collars around their necks and parading them through the streets.
After that public shame they were sent to be tortured in Asia. "Bacchus succumbed to the terrible tortures, while Sergius was executed by the sword, receiving wreaths of immortal glory around 309," reads the traditional account of their end. Those events are the historical core of the day the Church remembers.
In popular belief this date marks a natural border between autumn and winter — the moment when cold weather is said to take control. Many rural customs grew up around the idea that the season is about to change: wild animals in the forests become calmer, and heavy field labour is avoided.
Farmers traditionally refrain from going out to the fields with their oxen or ploughing on that day, and the custom has extended to those who tend gardens or small plots — people are advised to rest from gardening and similar chores.
Sergius and Bacchus are also regarded as patrons of shoemakers and craftsmen; folklore says the saint visits and celebrates with them on his feast day. The popular faith holds that people suffering from bone and joint illnesses may find relief on this day, and it is considered appropriate to pray for those with skeletal weakness or serious physical suffering.
Tropar: "Magnify, O ye sufferers of Christ, and eyes of the Church of Christ, Sergius much-suffering and Bacchus most-glorious, enlighten the eyes of our souls. Pray to the Lord that we may avoid the darkness of sin and become partakers of the Unwaning Light through your prayers."
Photo: press material from the event
