Saint Emmanuel

Emmanuel lived in Anatolia in the third century and died a martyr together with Quadratus and Theodosius. The sources about him are incomplete and imprecise, and they don’t even allow the martyrdom to be dated with certainty: what follows is the account given in one of the Byzantine synaxaria. Quadratus was the bishop of a young Christian community in Asia Minor. The local pagans had tried to persuade him to stop: to no longer show his faith, to no longer lead those people. He refused, and they seized him and killed him. What happened next is the part that matters. With their pastor dead, Emmanuel and Theodosius went of their own accord to the governor of the province and declared openly that they were Christians. They knew perfectly well what was about to happen: it had just happened to Quadratus. They were tortured and beheaded. Emmanuel is often confused with Saint Manuel of Persia, who is a different person from a different century. If your name is Emmanuel or Emanuela, today is your name day.