The Holy Martyrs Photius and Anicetus.
Emperor Diocletian once visited the
city of Nicomedia with the evil intention to completely exterminate
the Christians. But when he began his merciless torture of
Christians, St. Anicetas, one of the high ranking officials of the
city, boldly confessed before the emperor his faith in Christ the
Lord, God incarnate in the flesh for our salvation. Along with this,
Anicetas also denounced the idols as deaf and dumb stones and the
worship of which is unworthy of a rational man. The emperor ordered
his tongue to be severed but Anicetas, by the power of God, continued
to speak. They then released a lion against him but the lion cuddled
around him. At that moment the temple of Hercules collapsed. Photius,
a kinsman of Anicetas, seeing the miracles and endurance of Anicetas,
kissed him, declared himself a Christian and cried out to the
emperor: " O idolator, be ashamed, your gods are nothingness!"
The emperor then ordered that Anicetas immediately be beheaded.
However, the executioner, raising his hand against holy Photius,
struck himself with the sword and died. After prolonged tortures,
both Anicetas and Photius were cast into prison where they languished
for three years. Then they were brought out, a fire was lighted in an
enormous furnace and they cast them into the fire. Many other
Christians, men, women and children, willingly followed them into the
fire. From the fire was heard the prayer of the Christians who were
praising God for the death of martydom. They all suffered about the
year 305 A.D. "Saint Anicetas and Saint Photius are invoked in
the prayers in the Sacrament of Anointing with Oil [Holy Unction] and
in the Blessing of Water."
[THE SACRAMENT OF HOLY UNCTIONANOINTING
WITH HOLY OIL].
O holy Father, Physician of souls and
bodies, who did send Your Only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,
who heals every infirmity and delivers from death. Heal Thou, also
Your servant [Name] from the ills of body and soul which do hinder
[Him Her] and quicken [Him Her] by the grace of Your Christ: through
the prayers of our Most Holy Lady, the Birth-giver of God and
Ever-virgin Mary; through the intercession of the honorable Bodiless
Powers of Heaven; through the might of the precious and Life-giving
Cross, through the protection of the honorable, glorious Prophet,
Forerunner and Baptist John; of the glorious and all-laudable
Apostles; of the holy, glorious and right-victorious Martyrs; of our
venerable and God-bearing Fathers; of the holy and healing,
unmercenaries, Cosmas and Damian, Cyrus and John, Pantaleon and
Hermolaus, Samson and Diomedes, Photius and Anicetas of the holy
righteous Ancestors of God, Joachim and Anna; and all the Saints.
For You are the Fountain of healing, O
our God, and unto You do we ascribe glory, together with Your
Only-begotten Son and Your Spirit, one in essence, now and ever and
unto ages of ages. Amen.
Respectfully Taken From the:
"The Prologue of Ohrid"
by St. Nikolai of Zica, Serbia(Velimirovic)
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