Hieromartyr Mark the Bishop of Arethusa, Martyr Cyril the Deacon of Heliopolis, and others who suffered under Julian the Apostate

Mark, bishop of Arethusa in Syria, had destroyed a pagan temple in the reign of Constantine. Under Julian (361–363) the townspeople demanded that he rebuild it or pay for it. He fled, but came back when others were tortured in his place. Gregory of Nazianzus, writing soon after, tells how the old bishop was dragged through the streets, cut, smeared with honey and hung up in a basket in the midday sun to be stung by wasps.

He refused to pay even a single coin. According to Theodoret, the townspeople, amazed by his endurance, let him go and later became Christians. The same day remembers the deacon Cyril of Heliopolis (Baalbek), killed by pagans for destroying idols, and other Christians who suffered under Julian, c. 363.