Background and Arrest
The three martyrs came from distinct social ranks and regions of Asia Minor. Tarachus, the eldest, was a Roman from Claudiopolis in Isauria who had served as a soldier; Probus was a man of plebeian status from Side in Pamphylia; and Andronicus belonged to a prominent patrician family of Ephesus.
The synaxarion remembers Tarachus as 'the old soldier' who, when ordered to sacrifice to the idols, refused, declaring that he would offer a pure heart to the one true God rather than take part in blood sacrifices. The accounts emphasize his firmness under interrogation.
Trial and Martyrdom
The three were tried by the governor Numerian Maximus and tortured three times in several cities of Cilicia, including Tarsus, Mopsuestia, and Anazarbus. According to the martyrdom account, Tarachus was beaten with stones; Probus was thrashed with whips, his feet burned with red-hot irons and his back and sides pierced with heated spits, and was finally cut with knives; and Andronicus too was cut to pieces with knives.
Condemned to die by wild beasts in the amphitheatre, they were spared when the animals would not touch them, and so were put to death by the sword. By tradition three witnesses to the martyrdom — Marcian, Felix, and Verus — recovered the bodies and had them buried together in a single vault.
Veneration and Legacy
The martyrs are commemorated on October 12 in the Greek Orthodox Church and on October 11 in the Roman Catholic Church, and they are also venerated in the Romanian Orthodox Church. Tarachus is honored in the Maronite Church under the name 'Mar Edna.'
The historicity of the surviving accounts has been debated by scholars: Hippolyte Delehaye classified them among 'historical romances,' while Thierry Ruinart regarded one account as entirely authentic.
