Ischichius was a member of the hierarchy of Antioch and held a prominent position in the imperial palace there. This was during the time of Emperor Maximianus Galerius, around 303 AD.
A royal decree was issued requiring all those who served in the military to sacrifice to the gods under penalty of being stripped of their rank. Ischius took off his belts, left the military and fled because he was a Christian and did not want to offer sacrifices to idols. As soon as Maximianus learned of this, he ordered him to be arrested, stripped of his clothes, and put into the harem in a woman’s dress and forced to do spinning to humiliate him. After a while, he summoned him and said to him: Are you not ashamed of yourself, Ischius, to have your rank stripped from you and to be thrown into this shameful situation from which the Christians have no power to extricate you? The saint of God answered him: The glory that you bestow as a ruler is fleeting, but the glory that Christ Jesus bestows is eternal and limitless. Caesar exploded with anger and felt helpless in the face of this stubborn person, so he ordered him to be tied to a millstone and thrown into the waters of the Orontes. Ischius completed his testimony to God, joining the ranks of the holy martyrs.
Our Orthodox Church commemorates him on the second of March.
Troparia in the fourth tune
Your martyr, O Lord, by his struggle, obtained from you the imperishable crown, O our God, because he attained your strength and crushed the usurpers, and crushed the powerless might of the demons. By his supplications, O Christ God, save our souls.
