ABSTRACT
St Polyeuctus (¶ÔÏ‡Â˘ÎÙÔ˜) was a pagan who envisaged becoming a Christian when an edict, promulgated by the Emperors Decius and Valerian, imposed idolatry on all their subjects.1 Polyeuctus, not yet baptized, made his hostility to imperial policy public by tearing down the edict and by smashing idols. He stripped himself of his ‘sordid’ military chlamys in order to become a soldier of Christ. He was executed, probably at Melitene in 251. He is commemorated on 9 January.2 His relics were translated in the early fifth century to Constantinople, where Eudocia, wife of Theodosius II (408-50), had a church built in his honour. Anicia Juliana replaced it by a more sumptuous building between 524 and 527.3 Polyeuctus’ relics were still there in the tenth century.4
