Basiliscus of Comana

Basiliscus was a nephew of the great soldier-martyr Theodore the Tyro, born in the late third century in the country around Amasea in Pontus, and like his uncle he entered the Roman army as a young man. He was one of three soldier-companions — together with Eutropius and Cleonicus — who were arrested during the persecution of Maximinus Daia (309–313) and brought before the governor Asclepiodotus. The other two were martyred quickly; Basiliscus was held back in chains, in the hope that he could be persuaded to recant after the example of his companions' deaths had broken his will.

In prison Basiliscus had a vision of his uncle Theodore, who told him not to fear and prepared him for what was coming. He was released long enough to visit his mother and brothers at the family estate to bid them farewell, and then surrendered himself again to the soldiers, who were leading him to Comana in Cappadocia for further questioning. On the road, beneath a great plane tree, the synaxarion records that Basiliscus prayed openly to the Lord, the tree bowed its branches in homage, and a spring of water broke from the earth at his feet. He was finally beheaded at Comana around the year 312, his body cast into the river. Christian villagers retrieved it and buried it at the place where the spring had risen.

A church was built over the spot, and it was here, more than a century later, that John Chrysostom — in exile, on the long march toward his second place of banishment — would fall sick and seek refuge. Tradition records that the soldier-martyr Basiliscus appeared to him in a vision the night before his death and said: "Take courage, brother John, for tomorrow we shall be together." Chrysostom, raised to fresh courage by the visit of the saint at whose shrine he was lodging, received Communion on the morning of September 14, 407, and shortly afterward gave up his soul with the words he had repeated through every storm of his life: "Glory to God for all things."

Basiliscus's feast is kept on May 22.