Hieromartyr Cheremon of Alexandria

Hieromartyr Cheremon was a deacon of the Alexandrian Church, one of the closest companions of St. Dionysius, Archbishop of Alexandria (r. 247-265), whose account survives thanks to fragments of the bishop's own letters, preserved by Eusebius of Caesarea in his "Church History."

During the persecution of Emperor Valerian (257-260), when the governor Aemilianus demanded that the Christians of Alexandria renounce their faith, St. Dionysius appeared before him together with the presbyter Maximus and the deacons Faustus, Eusebius, and Cheremon. All refused to sacrifice to the pagan gods and were exiled to the remote Libyan village of Cephro, where a Christian community gathered around them from local believers and other exiles.

After the term of exile ended, Cheremon, together with the deacon Eusebius, continued to visit imprisoned Christians and bury the bodies of martyrs who had suffered — a ministry during which, according to tradition, he himself was seized and beheaded. (The deacon Eusebius later became bishop of Laodicea in Syria and survived the persecution; the deacon Faustus lived to a great old age and suffered martyrdom later, under Diocletian.)

His feast is kept on October 4/17, together with Hieromartyr Deacon Gaius, Hieromartyr Deacon Faustus, and Hieromartyr Bishop Eusebius.

NOTE: the original stub was an unprocessed image caption from pravicon.com for a miniature from the Menologion of Emperor Basil II (Constantinople, 985, Vatican Library) — it has been reworked into a coherent life; the previously empty feast-date and life-dates fields have been filled in.