Anthony, John, and Eustathius

Martyrs of Vilnius, medieval icon

Covered bodies of the martyrs on display in the Orthodox Church of the Holy Spirit in Vilnius

Anthony, John, and Eustathius (Eustathios, Eustace; Russian: Антоний, Иоанн and Евстафий) are saints and martyrs (d. 1347) of the Russian Orthodox Church. Their feast day is celebrated on April 14 in the horlogion.

They were attached to the Muscovite missionaries dispatched to the court of the pagan warlord, Grand Duke of Lithuania Algirdas (Olgierd). Algirdas was married to an Orthodox Christian princess, Maria of Vitebsk, and the Orthodox were permitted only to minister to the religious needs of the princess. All outside proselytising was forbidden.

The three youths were arrested for preaching in public, and were ordered by Algirdas to consume meat in his presence during an Orthodox fasting period. When they refused, they were tortured and executed. Their bodies are kept in a glass reliquary in the crypt chapel beneath the altar of the cathedral church in the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Vilnius, Lithuania. Their relics are said to be incorruptible.

External links

• Anthony, John, and Eustathius of Vilna
• Saints Index: Antony (Kukley), Eustace (Nizilon), and John (Milhey)
• Icon