Sergius, saint and martyr

Sergius (2), a very celebrated military saint and martyr of the Eastern church. His Acts call him "Amicus Imperatoris." He and Bacchus were regarded as the patron saints of Syria. Sergius suffered at Sergiopolis, or Rasaphe, in Syria, early in the 4th cent. Their united fame soon became widespread. Le Bas and Waddington (Voy. archéol. t. iii. No. 2124) notice a church of E. Syria dedicated in their honour in 354 as the earliest case of such consecration to saints, and (ib. No. 1915) describe one dedicated in 512 to SS. Sergius, Bacchus, and Leontius, and offer reasons for regarding Leontius as a martyr under Hadrian when ruling Syria during the last years of Trajan. Theodora, wife of Justinian, presented a jewelled cross to a church of St. Sergius, which Persian invaders carried off. Chosroes, king of Persia, returned it to Gregory, patriarch of Antioch, in 593. (Cf. Evagr. H E. iv. 28; vi. 21, where Chosroes is represented as a convert to the cult of Sergius.) The fame of Sergius and Bacchus spread to France, where Le Blant (Christ. Lat. Inscrip. of France, t. i. p. 305) notices a church at Chartres dedicated in their honour. Le Blant (Actes des mart. p. 77) notes the marks of genuineness in his Acts as told in AA. SS. Boll.; cf. Tillem. v. 491.

[G.T.S.]