Martyr Varus (Uar) of Egypt

Saint Martyr Varus was a Roman military commander in Alexandria, Egypt, secretly professing the Christian faith during the persecutions preceding Constantine the Great. He visited imprisoned Christian confessors by night, bribing the guards with gold, tending their wounds, feeding them, and asking for their prayers.

When seven Christian teachers awaiting execution lost one of their number in captivity, Varus volunteered to take his place as the seventh confessor, openly declaring his faith before the governor. Refusing promises of earthly reward for recanting, he was beaten so severely that he died of the torture; the remaining six teachers were then executed. His body was thrown onto a rubbish heap outside the city.

A devout widow named Cleopatra secretly buried him, and years later, once the persecutions had ceased, honorably translated his relics to her homeland in Palestine — the origin of his special veneration there and later in Russia.

IMPORTANT NOTE: in Russian piety Varus holds a unique place as the saint invoked in prayer for the repose of unbaptized deceased relatives — a practice not, in principle, part of standard Orthodox liturgical usage, which does not offer liturgical commemoration for the unbaptized. This rests on the tradition of Cleopatra herself, whose own unbaptized son was reportedly healed/restored through Varus's intercession. Notably, the Moscow Patriarchate, in the 2018–2019 reprinting of the Menaion, removed the special service to Varus, stating it was of "Old Believer origin" and that the tradition "is not confirmed by ancient sources, especially Greek ones"; nonetheless, popular veneration for this purpose continues widely in pastoral practice. This is honestly noted as a pious tradition with an acknowledged scholarly caveat, not as settled hagiography.

His feast is kept on October 19/November 1.