The Passion of St. Maximus

And when he saw that the idolaters did not only worship idols themselves, but also led others to do so, he prayed that the persecution of the Christians should cease, and baptized many of them.

The holy martyr, not able to endure such a spectacle, went into the midst of the idolaters and publicly denounced them, calling their idols wood and stone, powerless even to help themselves. Then the pagans seized him and first severely beaten him, and then stoned him.

On the same day, the memory of St. Isidore, the Rostov miracle worker, who died in 1474, and the memory of St. Father Nikita, a prisoner of the Caves, then bishop of Novgorod, who died in 1108.