As evidenced by the earliest surviving liturgical texts from throughout the world, the Church consistently and universally entreated the martyrs--often recent martyrs from the local region--for their intercessions (prayers) on behalf of those Christians still racing toward the finish. In particular, the memory of the martyrs was kept on the date of their martyrdom, when the Church gathered to celebrate their birth into eternal life. We have direct testimony of this practice from the middle of the second century in an eyewitness account of the martyrdom of Saint Polycarpos (Polycarp), Bishop of Smyrna, an 86 years old disciple of the holy Apostle John. After his remains were burned by the centurion, we hear the following from the account:

"Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lord, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints" (Revelation 5:8).

Saint Hilarion our holy Father, a native of the village of Thawatha, some five miles south of Gaza in Palestine, was born around 293 A.D. This great miracle of the wilderness is to be compared to a rose amid thorns, because he was the offshoot of pagan Greek parents. His parents were desirous that their son should one day become a wise philosopher, so they sent him to study in a grammar school in Alexandria. This was, indeed, God's providence, so that the youth might learn of the True Faith of the Master Christ and thereby deny the idols.