greek-saints

Biography of the Orthodox Saints Emilios and Kastos

st-emilios-and-kastosSaints Emilios and Kastos are found in the middle of the 3rd century. A.D. in Carthage, a great city of the Roman Empire but also of the African Continent. Unfortunately, we do not know enough biographical information about the saints. However, for this presentation we will take advantage of what Saints Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, and Saint Augustine quote for us.

Emperor of the Roman Empire was the pagan Decius, enemy of Christianity and relentless persecutor of believers. We do not have clear information about whether Saints Aemilius and Castus came from Christian families or whether they converted to Christianity at an older age.

In the persecution against the Christians, the saints found themselves in the eye of the cyclone. Their dilemma is enormous: the cost, on the one hand, monstrous and horrible. martyrdom, death by fire, and on the other hand, demeaning, cowardly, spiritually cowardly to deny their faith, to save their earthly, locally and temporally limited life and lose their eternal soul. Unfortunately, initially, they chose the latter. That is, they denied their faith in the face of the certainty of the brutality of the martyrdom and sacrificed on the altar in honor of the pagan deities who were in the Capitol.

Their memory is commemorated on May 22 of each year.