Martyr Julian of Tarsus

Life and Martyrdom

According to the synaxarion tradition, Julian came from Cilicia, the son of a pagan senator and a Christian mother who raised him in the faith; the OCA Lives names his birthplace as Diocesarea in Cilicia, while other accounts associate him with Tarsus and Anazarbus. When Diocletian's edict required sacrifice to the idols, Julian refused to renounce Christ.

The tradition relates that he endured prolonged torments and, by some accounts, was paraded through various cities of Cilicia over the course of a year. He was at last sewn into a sack filled with sand and venomous creatures — snakes, and in some versions also scorpions — and cast into the sea. His mother is said to have followed him through his ordeal, to have spent three days in prison exhorting him to remain steadfast, and herself to have been martyred.

Relics & Shrines

By tradition the sea carried Julian's body to Alexandria, where it was buried; his relics were later translated to Antioch, and a basilica there was held to be their resting place. The OCA Lives reports that fragments of his relics are kept in the Monasteries of Pantokrator and Saint Panteleimon on Mount Athos.

Miracles & Traditions

Historically Documented: Julian's veneration at Antioch is attested by an encomium attributed to Saint John Chrysostom, delivered in the saint's honor. He is commemorated on June 21 in the Eastern Orthodox Church and on March 16 in the Roman Catholic Church.

Traditional Accounts: The narrative of a year-long parade of torments through the cities of Cilicia and the death by a sack of venomous creatures cast into the sea belongs to the hagiographic tradition; surviving sources transmit it as such rather than as documented history, and they differ on details such as his birthplace and the creatures sealed in the sack.