Saints
“Lupus the Servant”
Servant of St. Demetrius · Martyr under Maximian
The servant of St. Demetrius of Thessaloniki, who was with him at the end. He dipped his master's ring and the hem of his garment in the blood, and the accounts say that everything he touched with them afterward was healed, until the authorities understood where it was coming from and took him too.
His life
Demetrius, deacon and later patron of Thessaloniki, was speared in the baths of the city in the persecution under Maximian. Lupus was his servant and was present.
He took his master's ring and dipped it, and the hem of his own garment, in the blood. With them, the account says, he healed the sick of Thessaloniki in numbers, and the city knew about it quickly.
The emperor was still in Thessaloniki. Lupus was arrested, and the tradition says the first attempts on him failed and that he asked for and received baptism before the end. He was beheaded, about the year 306.
The Church keeps him on the twenty third of August, the day after the leavetaking of the Dormition. He is one of the small number of saints whose whole recorded story is his relation to another saint, and the Church has never regarded that as a lesser thing.
Holy St. Lupus of Thessaloniki, pray to God for us.