Martyrs Diomedes Julian, Philip & Companions

The Company and Their Martyrdom

What distinguishes this commemoration is the variety of deaths the company endured rather than a single shared mode of execution. The collective notice records that they 'consummated their martyrdom, some by fire, some by water, others by the sword or by the cross.'

The Orthodox liturgical listing for September 2 assigns each named martyr a particular torment: Diomedes and Philip were put to the sword; Julian was beaten to death; Eutychian was roasted on a gridiron; Hesychius was hanged; Leonides and Melanippus perished by fire; Eutychius was crucified; and Philadelphus and Parthagape were drowned, the former by a heavy stone tied about the neck. The catalogue of torments — sword, fire, water, crucifixion, and hanging — is the principal content the tradition has retained about them.

Historical Record

No biographical narrative, acta, region, or century is securely attached to this company. The Orthodox, Catholic, and synaxarial notices alike state that there are no details as to the time or location of their martyrdom, and the OCA daily synaxarion for September 2 does not list them, the commemoration being preserved instead through the Greek synaxaria and the Roman Martyrology. They are remembered as a named fellowship of confessors whose specific circumstances have not survived.