Emperor Diocletian issued a decree that all throughout the empire should sacrifice to the pagan gods, especially those who were in the army. When that decree was announced to the troops in Atribis, Apaskhiroun refused to give worship to the idols. So the magistrate rose up, smote him and scolded him furiously. At this Apaskhiroun cast off his military band, and the magistrate ordered him imprisoned at once. The saint's two brothers came over to him, cried, implored him to burn incense to the gods but he would not give heed to their tears. Seeing this they disowned him but he kept talking to them about faith in Christ Jesus our Lord, then he stood up to pray. At that moment an angel appeared to him and gave him support and encouragement.

Next day he was presented to court. The magistrate started to threaten him, then to implore him softly, and so on. But finding him so steadfast in his faith he decided to ship him off to Arianus, magistrate of Antinoe (A city that was on the East bank of the Nile opposite the present city of Mallawi), who was notorious for his notable cruelty and immense tortures. Apaskhiroun was bound up and shipped together with four soldiers on a boat heading to Upper Egypt. While on board the Lord Jesus Christ, glory be to Him, appeared to him and set him free from his bonds, at which the soldiers accompanying him fell down and begged him in great fear lest they should be condemned to death. The saint, in his peace of mind, reassured them and allowed them to bind him up again.

When the ship arrived at Antinoe they found that Arianus went off to the city of Assiut, so they sailed up to him there. At Assiut Apaskhiroun was introduced to a group of believers who had been brought down from Asswan and Esna to Arianus in order to torture them. They comforted each other. It came to pass that the saint cast out an evil spirit which had tormented Maximus, the magistrate's advisor (Probably Assiut's magistrate, who must have been in Arianus' company), which infuriated Arianus. So he ordered the saint to be tied to horses and dragged along the city's streets, while his men shouted "This is the punishment of those who defy the king's orders refusing to offer incense to the gods". Abaskhiroun was tortured with many tortures but the Lord strengthened him and supported him. Consequently, Arianus alleged to him sorcery, so he summoned a sorcerer called Alexandros who mixed for him a cup of poison, but the saint made the sign of the cross on the cup and drank it up and was not harmed at all. Alexandros came to believe in the Lord, and was then beheaded by Arianus. Arianus intensified the tortures on the saint and, finally, cut off his head, on the 7th of Paouna, together with five soldiers, namely Alphaeus, Armanius, Archaias, Peter and Chiraion.

This is the same St. Apaskhiroun's church which was at Kalleen, miraculously transported by the saint to Bayahu, a village in Samalout district, Minya province in Upper Egypt, where it still exists to this day. [N.B.: The distance between Kalleen in Northern Egypt and Bayahu is about 400 kms!] There's an interesting story to this which says that it was the custom of the Christians at Kalleen, in the era of the Mamlukes in the 14th and 15th centuries AD, to set a certain day for collectively celebrating a number of weddings, due to the difficulty of transportation at those times and because such an event would normally take place at the time of harvest. At one of those events, when about 100 people were gathered inside the church, the Adversary of all good roused the persecutors against them. The believers in that town used to seek the intercession of St. Apaskhiroun, who was born in their town. So during the night and before those persecutors could carry out their plan, the church was miraculously transported, with all those who were inside, to Bayahu in Upper Egypt!

At the morning those people came out of church to find themselves in a different town than their own! The saint then appeared to them, not making himself known to them, and walked with them to the banks of the Nile, where he ushered them into a certain ship and sent them back down to Kaleen. They arrived there after one day, instead of the normal three days, to which the ship's owner was so astonished and came to believe and be a Christian himself. In Kaleen they found their church had disappeared. And to this day there exists a pool in Kaleen in the church's place named "El Kaleeny Lake".

Icon of St. Martyr Apaskhiroun El-Kalleeny: The famous icon of the saint bears a lot of wonderful artistic features. The icon-writer set in it a record of the events of the saint's life and miracles.

May the Blessings of St. Apaskhiroun be with us all. Amen.