Greatmartyr Demetrius of Thessalonica

Tradition presents Demetrius as a young Thessalonian of senatorial family, a soldier and secret Christian who taught the faith openly when the emperor Galerius' persecution reached the city around 306. Imprisoned in a bathhouse, he blessed his young friend Nestor, who then defeated the emperor's champion gladiator Lyaeus in the arena; the enraged emperor had Nestor beheaded and Demetrius speared to death in his cell. The historical details are thin and the surviving passions late, but the cult is ancient, local, and enormous: the great basilica of St Demetrius rose over his tomb by the fifth century, and the city credited him with its deliverance through centuries of sieges by Avars, Slavs, and Saracens — the Miracles of St Demetrius record them. From his relics flowed fragrant myrrh, earning him the title Myrovlytes. With St George he is the beloved warrior-martyr of the East.