One of ten Christians martyred at Gortyna on Crete around 250 during the Decian persecution, an episode still called the Ten Martyrs of Crete.

Saint Gelasius of Crete was a layman put to death at Gortyna, on the island of Crete, around the year 250, during the persecution ordered by Emperor Decius. He is remembered among a group of nine named companions — Theodulus, Saturninus, the two who share the name Euporus, Zeticus, Pontius, Agathopus, Basilides, and Evaristus — an episode still known in Greek tradition as the Ten Martyrs of Crete.

Quick Facts

• Died: c. 250, Gortyna, Greece (Crete)
• Role: Layperson and martyr
• Companions: Nine others, together venerated as the Ten Martyrs of Crete
• Venerated as: Martyr of the Decian persecution

Who Was Saint Gelasius of Crete?

Gelasius is remembered as one of ten Christians martyred together at Gortyna, then the Roman capital of Crete, around 250. The group’s traditional account, preserved in the Greek Menologion, describes them as men from various towns across the island who were arrested together and brought before the Roman governor, refusing under repeated pressure to offer sacrifice to the gods before being put to death as a group — a story consistent with the empire-wide pattern of Decius’s persecution in this exact year.

Historical Setting

The year 250 marked the first empire-wide, systematically enforced persecution in Roman history, requiring all subjects to sacrifice publicly and obtain certification of having done so. Crete, though somewhat removed from the empire’s major population centers, was fully subject to this imperial edict, and Gortyna, as the provincial capital, would have been the natural site for the kind of organized public trial the Ten Martyrs’ account describes.

Why the Church Remembers Gelasius of Crete

The Church remembers Gelasius as part of a specific, named group whose shared trial and death became one of the best-remembered episodes of ancient Cretan Christianity, still commemorated together as a set rather than as isolated individuals — a pattern that reflects how their contemporaries understood their martyrdom: as a single, unified act of collective witness rather than ten separate stories.

Canonization and Feast Day

No later canonization inquiry examined the Ten Martyrs of Crete individually; their commemoration as a group in the Greek liturgical calendar has always stood as recognition enough within their own tradition.

What Catholics Can Learn Today

The Ten Martyrs of Crete stood together before a single judge and gave a single answer, refusing as one group rather than negotiating individually. Catholics facing pressure to compromise their faith, whether from a crowd or an institution, can find real strength in Gelasius’s example of standing firm precisely by standing together with others who share the same conviction.

A Prayer to Saint Gelasius of Crete

Saint Gelasius, one of the Ten Martyrs of Crete, you and your companions refused together what none of you might have refused alone. Give us the same strength that comes from standing firm in faith alongside others. Amen.

Sources

• Greek Orthodox Menologion, entry for 23 December
• Roman Martyrology
• New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia, ‘Crete’