The Martyr Romilus

Commemorated on September 6

The Martyr Romilus lived during the reign of the emperor Trajan and was a confidant to the emperor by virtue of his office – military-commander. During a time of sojourn of the emperor in the East with the aim of suppressing the uprisings of various peoples against the Romans, – whether the Iberians, the Sarmatians, the Arabs –in the year 107 and again a second time in 115 the emperor, in conducting a review of the military strength of his army, found in his troops upwards to 11,000 Christians. Trajan immediately sent off in disgrace these Christians into exile in Armenia. Saint Romilus, in view of this, reproached the emperor with his impiety and the sheer folly to diminish the army's numeric strength during a time of war. And Saint Romilus moreover openly acknowledged that he himself was a Christian. The enraged Trajan had the holy martyr subjected to a merciless beating, after which the holy martyr Romilus was beheaded.
The Christian soldiers sent off to exile in Armenia were killed by various forms of execution.