Martyr Orestes, Physician of Cappadocia

The Martyr Orestes the Physician lived in the city of Tyana in Cappadocia during the reign of Emperor Diocletian (284-311). Several Greek and Slavic sources state that Saint Orestes was a learned and skillful physician (γιατρός, врач), though there is not much information about this period of his life. He was also an illustrious and capable soldier. From childhood he had been a devoted servant of Christ, offering a sacrifice of praise to God with a pure heart, and refusing to worship the demons which the pagans call "gods."

At the Emperor's command, the military officer Maximinus was sent to Tyana to stamp out Christianity, which by then had spread throughout Cappadocia. Orestes was among the first brought to trial before Maximinus. Courageously, he confessed his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The prosecutor offered the Saint riches, honors and fame if he would become an idolater, but Saint Orestes would not agree to this.

Maximinus tried in many ways, to force him to deny Christ. Even with the pressures they exerted upon him, they were unable to convince him to worship the idols. Then they stripped him naked, beat him up, and flogged him as a punishment. Afterward, he was put in jail for seven days.

At the end of the seventh day he was taken to a pagan temple to offer sacrifice and worship to the idols. Maximinus asked him, "Do you still refuse to convert to the worship which is offered with such reverence by our august emperors?"

Orestes replied that he was a willing subject when it came to political and earthly matters. Apart from that, however, he would not recognize any king except the one true God.

Maximinus ordered that Orestes be taken to a pagan temple and once again, demanded that he worship the idols. When he refused, forty soldiers took turns, one after the other, beating the holy martyr with lashes, with rods, with rawhide, and then they tormented him with fire. Saint Orestes cried out to the Lord, “Establish with me a sign for good, let those who hate me see it and be put to shame” (Psalm 85/86:17).

The Lord heard the prayer of His faithful servant. The earth began to tremble, and the idols toppled and were smashed. Everyone rushed out of the temple, and when Saint Orestes came out, the entire temple collapsed.

Infuriated, Maximinus ordered the holy martyr to be locked up in prison for seven days giving him neither food nor drink, and to resume the torture on the eighth day. They hammered twenty nails into the martyr’s legs, and then tied him to a wild horse. Dragged over the stones, the holy martyr departed to the Lord in the year 304, and his relics were thrown into the sea.

In 1685, when Saint Dēmḗtrios, later the Bishop of Rostov, (October 28) had just finished writing the Life of Saint Orestes to be printed by the Kiev Caves Lavra, he became tired and fell asleep. Saint Orestes appeared to him one night in a dream, during the Nativity Fast, just before Matins. With a joyful countenance, he said, "I suffered more torments for Christ than these."

Then the Martyr bared his chest and showed Saint Dēmḗtrios the deep wound in his left side. "Here," he said, "they pierced me with a spear."

Then Saint Orestes showed him his right elbow and said, "Here they cut off my arm."

Next, he showed him his left arm with a similar wound, saying "They cut off this arm here."

After this he bent over and showed him one leg, and then the other, with wounds behind the knee. He said, "My legs were cut off with a scythe."

After this the Martyr stood up and looked the writer in the face, and declared, "Now you see that I suffered more torments for Christ than you have described.”

The humble monk wondered whether this was Saint Orestes, one of the Five Martyrs of Sebaste (December 13). As if in answer to his thoughts the Martyr said, “I am not that Orestes, but him whose Life you have just finished writing.”

Just then, the bells rang for Matins, and the vision ended.