The Martyrdom of St . Julius El-Akfehas, the Writer of the Biography of Martyrs .

On this day also, St . Julius El-Akfehas, the writer of the biography of martyrs,was martyred . The Lord Christ appointed him to care for the bodies of the holy martyrs, toshroud them and to send them to their hometown . The Lord brought blindness into the hearts ofthe governors, and no one objected to him . They also never forced him to worship idols . TheLord kept him to care for the martyrs . He used 300 young men for this purpose . They wrote thebiography of the holy martyrs and sent it to their hometown . But he used to minister to the holymartyrs by himself and dress their wounds . The martyrs blessed him, saying, "You must shed yourblood in the Name of our Lord Christ, so you can be counted among the martyrs ."When the reign of Diocletian the Infidel came to an end, Constantine the Righteous reigned . TheLord Christ wished to fulfill what the saints had prophesied to St . Julius; to be counted among themartyrs . The Lord commanded him to go to Arkanius, governor of Samanoud, and to confess theLord Christ . St . Julius went there, and the governor tortured him with many tortures, but the Lordstrengthened him . The governor ordered to bring him to worship the idols . This saint prayed andthe earth opened and swallowed up the 70 idols and the 140 priests who were serving them .When the governor beheld the destruction of his idols and their priests, he believed in the LordChrist .The governor went with the Saint to the governor of Athribis who tortured Saint Julius with greatseverity, but the Lord Christ strengthened him .Once there was a feast for the idols and they decorated the temple with ornaments, lamps, statuesand with palm branches . They closed the gates till the following day to start celebrating the feast .The saint asked the Lord to blot out their idols . The Lord sent his angel who cut the heads of theidols, blackened their faces with ashes, burnt up all the palms, and all the idols in the temple . Onthe following morning when the people came dressed to celebrate the feast and saw what had4The town of Aqfahs, district of El-Fashn, provoince of El-Minya .happened to their gods, they recognized their weakness . The governor of Athribis5 and a largenumber of people believed in the Lord Christ .The Saint then went to the city of Towa6 along with the governor of Samanoud and the governorof Athribis, and they met Iskandros its governor . First he refrained from torturing them, but lateron he ordered his men to cut off their heads . Julius and his two sons, Tadros and Yunias; hisslaves; and the governors of Samanoud and Athribis and many people were martyred . Theynumbered 1500 . They took his body with the bodies of his sons to Alexandria for it was theirhometown .His intercession be for us, and Glory be to our God, forever . Amen .