The Armenian Apostolic Church marks the commemoration day of Sts. Phocas the Patriarch, and Eranos and Irenaeus, followers of the apostles

St. Phocas was bishop of the Black Sea city of Sinope. He lived in Paphlagonia and worked as a gardener. The doors of his home were always open to wanderers, strangers, the poor and the needy. From an early age, he had received from God the gift of working miracles. He opposed evil people, healed the blind and gave away his possessions to the poor. He was accused over his Christian beliefs, and the soldiers of Trajan, the emperor, were ordered to kill him wherever they found him.

Once, while receiving and feeding the soldiers at his home, Phocas told them that he was the man they were looking for. The soldiers were pleased with his hospitality but kept urging him to renounce his faith. St. Phocas did not renounce Christ and was cut down with a sword (AD 117).

St. Eranos (Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyon) was born in the Aegean period and was a disciple of St. Polycarp of Smyrna, Patriarch. He was educated in Rome and ordained a priest. After the death of the bishop of Lyon (117), he became his successor.

St. Irenaeus was the first major theologian of the West, who regarded the Church Fathers as continuers of the work of the apostolic hierarchs. According to the Chetyi Minei, in the time of Septimius Severus, he boldly bore witness to Christ before judges and was tortured for it (202). He wrote the valuable work Against Heresies.