Martyr 2nd century

Martyr Hyacinth of Caesarea and Companions

died early 2nd century

Also known as Hyacinth of Caesarea

A young chamberlain at the court of Trajan who, found at prayer, refused to taste the meat offered to idols and was shut up in prison, where he chose to starve rather than eat of it, and so died for Christ.

Feast Day

July 3

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Commemorated as

The Holy Martyr Hyacinth of Caesarea, the Cubicularius

Life

Hyacinth of Caesarea was a young Christian of the early second century who, according to the synaxarion, served in the household of the Emperor Trajan and died of starvation in prison rather than eat food that had been offered to idols. A native of Caesarea in Cappadocia, he is numbered among the pre-Nicene martyrs of Asia Minor and is commemorated on July 3.

By tradition Hyacinth was raised in a Christian family and entered imperial service as a cubicularius, a chamberlain of the imperial bedchamber; some accounts place his duties in the dining room of the palace. The emperor is said to have been unaware that the youth was a Christian. While the court was occupied with sacrifice to the gods, Hyacinth withdrew to pray, and a servant who overheard him denounced him to the emperor.

Brought to trial, he refused to deny Christ or to offer sacrifice. He was scourged and shut up in prison, where his guards provided him only with meat that had been offered to idols, which he would not eat. The accounts relate that he persevered without food and died in confinement; a jailer is said to have seen angels in the cell, one clothing the martyr and another setting a crown upon his head. Sources differ on the details, giving his age at death as either twelve or twenty and the length of his fast as thirty-eight or forty days.

Timeline 3 moments Read Hide

early 2nd c. Service at the imperial court Hyacinth serves as a chamberlain in the household of the Emperor Trajan while keeping his Christian faith secret.
early 2nd c. Denunciation and trial Overheard at prayer and denounced, he is brought before Trajan, refuses to sacrifice, and is scourged and imprisoned.
early 2nd c. Death in prison Refusing the idol-offered food given to him, he dies of starvation at Rome after some weeks of confinement.

Contributions & Legacy

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Death and Relics

The tradition places Hyacinth's death at Rome, early in the second century, under Trajan. His relics are recorded as having been translated afterward to his native Caesarea. In the Western Church a body identified as his is venerated in the abbey church of the former Cistercian Abbey of Fuerstenfeld in Bavaria, where a reliquary is labelled 'S. HYACINTHUS M.'; the circumstances and date of that body's arrival there are not securely known.

Alongside Hyacinth the synaxarion for July 3 commemorates Saints Diomedes, Eulampius, Asclepiodotus, and Golinduc as having suffered with him. He is venerated as a martyr by both the Eastern Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Churches; on Crete he is regarded by local custom as a patron of those in love.

Sources: OCA Synaxarion (oca.org), Lives of the Saints