The relics of the Holy Martyrs Tarachus, Probus, and Andronicus are in the antimens of the Church of Christ the Saviour in McComb, MS. In honor of their feast a Liturgy was served, and their lives were shared.

The Martyrs Tarachus, Probus, and Andronicus were martyred for Christ in the year 304 under the Emperor Diocletian at Tarsus in Cilicia. Tarachus was advanced in years, of Roman birth, and had been a soldier; Probus was from Side in Pamphylia, and Andronicus from Ephesus. They were taken together in Cilicia and subjected to exceedingly cruel tortures. When the pagans ordered him to offer sacrifice to idols, the old soldier Tarachus replied that he would offer a pure heart to the one true God instead of sacrifices of blood. Seeing the firmness of the saint’s confession the true Faith, the proconsul gave them all over to torture. The three were tried and horribly tortured three times in three different cities of Cilicia. Tarachus was beaten on his cheeks and neck with stones, his hands were burned, he was hanged on a post and smoke was put underneath him to choke him; vinegar was forced down his nostrils and into his wound. Probus was thrashed with whips, his feet were burned with red hot irons, his back and sides were pierced with heated spits; “When my body suffers,” St Probus said to the idol worshippers, “then my soul is healed and invigorated.” Andronicus suffered similar tortures, all the while praising God and refusing to give in to the demands of worshipping the pagan gods. They were then condemned to death by wild beasts, and when the animals would not touch them in the amphitheatre they were put to death with the sword, the Tradition saying that even in their deaths the torture didn’t stop, but they were carved to pieces by soldiers in the amphitheatre. Three Christian men, named Marcian, Felix, and Verus, witnessed their martyrdom. They retrieved the bodies of the three saints, buried them, and watched over them the rest of their lives, requesting that they be buried in the same vault as the martyrs at the end of theirs.

Holy Martyrs Probus, Tarachus, and Andronicus, pray to Christ our God that He grant great mercy to our souls!