Saint Demetrius of Thessalonica

Demetrius is one of the most venerated saints of the Christian East, and at the same time one of those scholars have the most doubts about: the first evidence of his existence comes a hundred and seventy-five years after his martyrdom, and some believe there never was a martyr named Demetrius in Thessalonica. The oldest tradition says he was a deacon of the city and was run through with spears around 306, during the persecutions of Diocletian or Galerius. A later tradition makes him a Roman soldier instead, even a proconsul: and it’s this version that made him, together with Saint George, one of the warrior saints adopted by the Crusaders. His relics are in Thessaloniki, of which he is the patron saint. The Greeks call him the Great Martyr and the Myroblyte, meaning the one who gives off myrrh. Among the Serbs he is Mitar, and his feast day is called Mitrovdan. The Churches don’t agree on the date: the Orthodox celebrate him on October 26, while the Roman Martyrology remembers him on April 9, following the tradition of the Syriac Martyrology — one of the oldest documents we have on the martyrs, and preferred for that reason. If your name is Demetrius, today is your name day.