Martyr Thalelaeus of Aegae

Saint Thalelaeus was born in 266 into a Christian family of Lebanese-Syrian origin: his father Berucius was a military commander, his mother Romyla a devout Christian; his elder brother served the Church as a subdeacon. From childhood Thalelaeus was drawn to medicine and trained under the physician Macarius, following his example by treating rich and poor without charge, earning the title "unmercenary physician" — like Sts. Cosmas and Damian, Panteleimon, and other saints of this rank.

When persecution of Christians intensified under Emperor Numerian (283–284), the eighteen-year-old Thalelaeus fled to Cilicia, hiding for a time in an olive grove near Anazarbus while continuing to heal the local population free of charge. Discovered, he was brought to trial before the governor in the city of Aegae (Cilicia), where he openly confessed: "I am a Christian, from Lebanon (Syria). My father Berucius was a military commander, my mother Romyla; I have a brother who is a subdeacon, and I was trained in medicine by the physician Macarius."

The governor subjected him to a series of torments: the executioners Alexander and Asterius were ordered to drill through the bones of his legs, but tradition holds the drill miraculously bored through a wooden block instead of the saint's body — astonished by this miracle, the executioners themselves believed in Christ and were beheaded. The saint was also bound to a wheel with swords and spikes that caused no harm, sawn with a saw (which miraculously revealed something like bronze instead of flesh), thrown into the sea, and exposed to wild beasts (a bear, a lion, and a lioness), which bowed before him without harming him. After many failed execution attempts, Thalelaeus was beheaded by the sword at Aegae in 284, at the age of 18. His relics were kept in the church of Martyr Agathonicus in Constantinople and became renowned for many miracles.

IMPORTANT NOTE: the standing epithet in Russian liturgical tradition is "of Aegae" (after the city of his trial and execution), while "of Anazarbus" refers only to the place where he briefly hid before his arrest; both toponyms are established in tradition and preserved in this entry's name.

His feast is kept on May 20/June 2, together with the martyrs Alexander and Asterius.