Basiliscus was a kinsman of St.
Theodore Tiro. He was tortured together with Eutropius and Cleonicus.
When the latter two [Eutropius and Cleonicus] were crucified, and
expired (March 3), then Basiliscus was again returned to prison. At
that time, there occurred a change in the emperor's deputy so that
Basiliscus remained imprisoned for a long time. With tears,
Basiliscus prayed that God not deprive him of a martyr's death. After
lengthy prayers, the Lord Jesus Himself appeared to him, promised to
fulfill his wish and sent him to his village to bid farewell to his
mother and brothers. At that time Agrippa, a new deputy, was
appointed and ordered that Basiliscus he brought from the village
immediately. Enroute from the village to the town of Amasea the Lord,
through His martyr, worked a great miracle and, as a result, many
people believed in Christ. Agrippa ordered the martyr to offer a
sacrifice to the idol Apollyon. Basiliscus said: "Apollyon means
`one who kills - the destroyer,' " and with fervent prayer
turned the idol into dust and with a heavenly fire burned the temple.
The frightened Agrippa attributed this to magic and ordered
Basiliscus beheaded. At that moment, Agrippa went insane and, in his
madness, went to the scaffold, found a little blood of the martyr in
the dust, placed it under his belt and he was healed. Coming to his
senses he was baptized. Later on, Marinus, a citizen of Comana, the
place of the execution of Basiliscus, built a church over the relics
of the saint where many afflicted people found healing.
John Vladimir was of princely lineage
from Zahumlje. His grandfather was called Hvalimir and his father
Petrislav. As a ruler, he was wise, merciful, meek, chaste and brave.
He fervently prayed to God and voluntarily built churches and
supported them. However, he had difficult struggles both internally
and externally. Internally, from heretics and the Bogomils and
externally from Tsar Samuel and Tsar Basil who wanted to conquer him.
Samuel deceitfully captured him and cast him into prison. While he
languished in prison an angel of God appeared to him and foretold
that he would shortly be freed, but that he would die a martyr's
death. Getting to know him better, Samuel grew to like him and gave
his daughter Kosara to be his wife. When Samuel died, his son Radomir
was crowned Tsar. But Vladislav, his twin brother, slew Radomir and
deceitfully summoned Vladimir and beheaded him in the year 1015 A.D.
The relics of this saintly king repose uncorrupt in his monastery
near Elbasan and over his relics, throughout the ages and even today,
numerous miracles occur. In 1925, a church was built to honor this
crowned martyr adjacent to the monastery of St. Nahum since John
Vladimir was the benefactor of this glorious monastery.
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