Troparion and Kontakion:

ST EMILIAN THE MARTYRST PAMBO THE EGYPTIAN, HERMIT AND CONFESSOR ST JOHN THE MUCH-SUFFERING OF THE KIEVAN CAVES

Troparion of St Emilian tone 4
By fire thou wast a burnt offering to thy Master/ and dost bring us joy by showering on us graces./Thou didst bear within thee the heavenly fire/ and accept the material flame as dew./ Ever preserve those who honour thee, O Martyr Emilian.

Troparion of St Pambo tone 1
Thou wast a desert citizen, an angel in the body and a wonder-worker/ O Pambo our Godbearing Father./ For by fasting, vigil and prayer thou didst obtain gifts from heaven/ and heal the sick and all who flocked to thee in faith./ Glory to Him Who has strengthened thee; glory to Him Who has crowned thee;/ glory to Him Who through thee works healing for all.

Troparion of St John tone 1
We the unworthy have thee as a firm pillar of patience,/ and as an invincible shield against the
enemies' darts,/ O much- suffering and angelic John,/ we venerate thy sacred relics and fervently
pray:/ Deliver us from soul-destroying passions of the flesh,/ and save us by thy prayers.
Kontakion of St Emilian tone 3Thou didst not fear thy fellow-creature fire,/ for thou wast ablaze with holy zeal./ Thou didst willingly enter the flames and wast unconsumed by their fury,/ and didst offer thyself in sacrifice to the Lord./ O Emilian, pray to Christ our God to grant us His great mercy.

Kontakion of St John tone 2
Thou pillar of continence impregnable to the enemy's warfare,/ thou didst leave thy much-suffering body to us set up as a column;/ those in bodily and spiritual infirmities venerate it, O John./ Wherefore we beseech thee to pray to Christ for us all.

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Life of Saint Emilian
The Holy Martyr Emilian, a Slav, suffered for Christ during the reign of the emperor Julian the Apostate (361-363). Julian wanted to restore in the Roman empire the cult of the pagan gods, and he circulated an edict throughout all the regions, according to which all Christians would be subject to death.

The city of Dorostolum, situated on the banks of the River Dunaj (Danube), where Saint Emilian lived, was governed by an official named Capitolinus. The imperial edict was read in the city square. The people of Dorostolum said that there were no Christians in the city.

Saint Emilian was a slave of the local city-head, and he was secretly a Christian. Emboldened by the harsh edict, Saint Emilian snuck into the pagan temple, he destroyed statues of the idols with a hammer, he overturned the altars and the candle- stands, and then emerged without notice. But soon the pagans discovered, that the pagan-temple was in ruins. An angry crowd began to beat up a certain Christian, who by chance happened by.

Saint Emilian then shouted out loudly, that they should not lay hold of that innocent man, and then he said that he himself had wrecked the pagan- temple.

They seized hold of him and led him for judgement to Capitolinus. By order of the official, Saint Emilian was for a long time beaten mercilessly, and then he was condemned to burning. Thrown into a bon-fire, he did not perish, but rather the flames burnt many of the pagans standing about. And when the bon-fire had gone
out, Saint Emilian lay down upon the dying embers and with a prayer gave up his spirit to the Lord. At Constantinople afterwards there was built a church in honor of the holy Martyr Emilian, where they transferred his relics.