IRENARCHUS, ACACIUS, SEVEN WOMEN AND TWO YOUNG CHILDREN MARTYRS AT SEBASTE

The saints suffered for Christ during the Great Persecution of Diocletian (284–305). Like the forty Martyrs of Sebastia, St Blasius, and many others, the saints came from the historical region of Lesser Armenia, the city of Sebastia, which corresponds to modern Turkish Sivas.

According to the life, seven wives were arrested on charges of converting their husbands to Christianity. Irenarchus, who was then a jailer, was entrusted with their custody. Having agreed to make a sacrifice to the pagan gods, the wives threw the idols into the lake, for which they were cruelly tortured and then executed. The pagans angrily threw two young children of one of the women into the oven. The example of innocent suffering became the reason for the conversion of Irenarchus himself to Christianity. The local presbyter Acacius baptized him, after which both were executed.

The name Irenarchus is translated from Greek as “chief of the world.” Literally repeating the words of the prophet Isaiah (cf. Isaiah 9:6), it represents one of the names of Christ, one of the typically Christian, Christological names.

Considering that before his supernatural conversion to faith, Irenarchus was a pagan, one can think that this name itself was originally not a name as such, but the name of the position he occupied as a modern district police officer, or guardian of public order. Thus, every ministry and profession are called to become a ladder to heaven to the honor of a high calling (cf. Phil. 3:14).