Venerable (Monastic)Byzantine

Emilian of Rome

Born Victorinus, he lived a sinful life into old age before repenting, entering the monastic life under the name Emilian, and serving God in humility for the rest of his days.

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Commemorated as

Our Venerable Father Emilian of Rome

Life

Emilian of Rome (originally named Victorinus) was a Roman monastic saint whose life is remembered as a model of late repentance. According to his vita, he lived a sinful life into old age before undergoing a profound spiritual conversion, withdrawing to a monastery, and taking the monastic name Emilian.

Once tonsured, he astonished the brethren with his uncomplaining obedience and strict fasting. The central episode of his life is a reported nocturnal revelation in a nearby cave, where the monastery's superior is said to have witnessed Emilian at prayer surrounded by heavenly light and heard a divine voice declare his sins forgiven. He is commemorated on March 7.

Troparion1 hymnReadHide

TroparionTone 8

By a flood of tears you made the desert fertile,
and your longing for God brought forth fruits in abundance.
By the radiance of miracles you illumined the whole universe!
O our holy father Emilian, pray to Christ our God to save our souls!

Text used with permission of the Orthodox Church in America (oca.org).

Contributions & Legacy

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Conversion and Monastic Life

By his own vita, Emilian was a Roman by birth, bearing the secular name Victorinus, who committed many grave sins and persisted in a sinful manner of life until he was an old man. Sources relate that he came to dread the judgment of God, refrained from sinning, and turned decisively toward repentance.

He withdrew to a monastery and was tonsured a monk under the name Emilian. There he pursued the ascetic life through fasting, vigils, and obedience, and the brethren held him in great respect, regarding him as a model in the virtuous labors of asceticism.

The Revelation in the Cave

According to the synaxarion account, Emilian would regularly leave the monastery at night to pray in a nearby cave. When his fellow monks observed these secret departures, the igumen (the monastery's superior) followed him one night to learn what he was doing.

The vita relates that the superior found Emilian at prayer in tears of contrition, and that a heavenly light brighter than the sun encompassed the whole mountain. A voice from heaven is said to have declared, 'Emilian, your sins are forgiven you.' The igumen is reported to have understood this visible revelation as instruction for the whole community — that God had shown His grace and mercy openly so that they might behold His compassion toward sinners who repent.

Final Days and Sources

The vita records that Emilian spent the remainder of his days in spiritual joy and peacefully departed to the Lord after a long life devoted to his faith.

Emilian is a genuinely obscure Byzantine-era monastic figure. No specific century, year of death, glorification date, or relic tradition is recorded in the available sources, and no dedicated scholarly article exists for him; his memory rests on the synaxarion and menaion accounts cited below.

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Sources: OCA Synaxarion (oca.org), Lives of the Saints