Martyr Callistratus and his Forty-Nine Companions

Callistratus was a Christian soldier in the Roman army in the early years of the Diocletianic persecution, stationed at Carthage in North Africa. He had been raised in the faith by Christian parents and continued the practice openly in the army camp, his nightly prayers having been observed for some time before he came under suspicion. When the imperial edict against the Christians went out in 303, his fellow soldiers reported him to the tribune Persenchius.

Callistratus was scourged, thrown into the sea bound in a sack of leather — and emerged alive on the shore, the sack having burst open. Forty-nine of his fellow soldiers, witnessing the miracle, confessed Christ on the spot. All fifty were imprisoned together; the synaxarion records that during their imprisonment Callistratus catechized them more fully. Subsequent tortures applied to all fifty failed to break them, and at last the whole company was beheaded together.

Their joint feast falls on September 27.