Biography
Hermias of Comana
About Hermias of Comana
Hermias is remembered as a soldier and martyr near Comana in Pontus. The Roman Martyrology commemorates him on May 31, a date also used by the Orthodox Church in America. Byzantine manuscripts and church art preserve his name and later scenes of his death. The calendars support his identity and place of commemoration more securely than a precise lifetime.
The received life tells of Hermias refusing to sacrifice, surviving a sequence of tortures and poisonings, and finally being beheaded. The *Acta Sanctorum* dossier and the OCA preserve versions of that account. Its elaborate dialogue, named officials, and miraculous episodes should be identified as tradition, not presented as independently verified second-century events.
There is enough evidence for a concise profile of a martyr remembered at Comana, without assigning him an exact death year or importing the narrative's trials into structured events. He should remain distinct from Hermes of Moesia, whose January 4 commemoration concerns another martyr.
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