On the 30th of July, the holy Church commemorates the memory of the martyr Julitta of Caesarea. Julitta is one of many, many martyrs who lived during the very turbulent and distressing reign of the Emperor Diocletian. And as if to add further anxiety to the situation, Julitta was also someone who became encumbered in the court system of the day. Any of us who have had any sort of entanglement with any kind of court whatsoever in our country know how distressing and disturbing it can be. Can you imagine a court under such a tyrannical emperor as Diocletian? even though he maintained such things for the supposed good order of the empire and so he himself would not have to be bothered with so many of the lesser grievances that people brought to him.

Julitta, however—and we don’t know exactly how—she was being encumbered by a man who was attempting to seize all of her property, not only just property, but the animals she had, the place that she lived; anything connected to her, he was trying to assume. So hoping for some sort of justice, she took him to court. In court, though, things weren’t going to go very well for her, because this man began to expose the fact that she was a Christian and did not worship any of the gods that Diocletian did. So he maintained that because of this she was not subject to any of the favorable laws or ordinances that might be provided for someone who was a pagan.

Julitta was not happy with this, as you can imagine, but yet, deep in her heart, although she had a certain amount of wealth, she really cared for none of these things at all. Her only concern for going to court in the first place was because of her servants, because this man who had assumed or was trying to take all of her property, would also take the servants, too, and she was very much afraid that they would not get their proper share in all of this, that he would take everything; they would be left homeless and without any hope. Yet while she was in the court, she also maintained that she, although she admitted to being a Christian, would in nowise reject her Creator and Fashioner, as she said.

Once this was admitted in open court, Julitta was taken out, and she was thrown into a furnace. Her Life tells us that almost immediately her soul flew up to the many mansions of heaven, and although her body remained the fire would not consume it. Her relatives and friends then took her remains, and they became a great source of blessing for everyone around them, curing diseases, healing the sick, causing all sorts of disturbances and oppressions to be resolved.

After this we don’t know much more about her life or what happened after her repose, but we do have someone who was a noted fellow-Caesarean, Basil the Great, who wrote a brief encomium to her, and he said that even in this day—referring to his own days—there was a spring that gushed forth at the place of her martyrdom and that all those who were brought there were indeed healed by Julitta’s intercession of their many diseases and afflictions, and that the place itself was sanctified by her presence.

Julitta came and went very quickly, as so many during that time did, but St. Basil the Great noticed, and because of this we have a brief description of her life and her struggles, as someone who was simply seeking fairness and justice in the world. Though she was ultimately denied it, she was granted a place in the heavenly kingdom. By her prayers, may we all also be found worthy of such an end.