Martyr Pre-Nicene

Martyrs Galacteon Juliana, and Saturninus of Constantinople

Pre-Nicene era

Also known as Galacteon · Juliana · Saturninus

Christians of Constantinople who confessed Christ — Galacteon drowned in the sea, and Juliana with her son Saturninus given to the fire.

Feast Day
June 22
Draft
Draft — pending review. Not yet verified for publication.

Life

Galacteon, Juliana, and Saturninus were Christians of Constantinople commemorated together as martyrs on June 22. According to the synaxarion, Galacteon was drowned in the sea for confessing his faith in Christ, while Juliana was burned together with her son Saturninus because they were Christians.

They belong to the pre-Nicene period of persecution, but no dates of martyrdom or further biographical background survive in the accessible sources. The Eastern Orthodox liturgical tradition places all three martyrdoms in the district known as Petra, within Constantinople.

These are genuinely obscure figures: beyond the brief synaxarion notice and the calendar listings, no extended hagiography of them survives in the standard reference sources.

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Commemoration

The three martyrs are commemorated on June 22, sharing the day with a number of other saints, among them the Hieromartyr Eusebius, Bishop of Samosata; the Martyrs Zeno and Zenas of Philadelphia; and, in the wider calendar, Saint Alban, protomartyr of Britain.

The Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar specifies the location of their deaths as the quarter called Petra in Constantinople, naming Galacteon's martyrdom as by drowning and that of Juliana and her son Saturninus as by fire.

Notes

Named group; OCA gives brief detail.

Sources: OCA Synaxarion (oca.org), Lives of the Saints