Martyr Andrew Stratelates and the 2,593 Martyrs with him in Cilicia

Andrew was a tribune, a Roman officer, in Syria under Emperor Maximian. According to his Life, when the Persians invaded, the commander Antiochus gave him the army and the rank of stratelates, general; Andrew chose a small force, told them to call on Christ, and routed the enemy. Denounced to the emperor as a Christian, he went with the 2,593 soldiers who had come to believe with him to Tarsus, where Bishop Peter baptized them. They withdrew into the Taurus mountains, and there an army sent by the governor Seleucus killed them all in a gorge, c. 284–305.