Saint Vasiliskos of Comana | The Martyr Whose Prayer Made a Dead Tree Bloom

Saint Vasiliskos of Comana, also known as Saint Basiliscus or Saint Vasilikos, was an early Christian martyr of Pontus whose final journey became a miracle remembered by the Church. In this full animated Christian saint story from Hearts, Brave and True, children and families will hear the moving story of Saint Vasiliskos: his imprisonment, his suffering in chains, his courage before the Roman governor Agrippa, and his refusal to deny Christ. Saint Vasiliskos lived during the great Roman persecutions of the early fourth century, in the time of Diocletian and Maximian Galerius. A relative of Saint Theodore the Recruit, he was taken toward Comana in Pontus to stand before the governor and face martyrdom. Along the road, Saint Vasiliskos was left outside in the heat, wounded and exhausted. There, beside a dry and withered tree, he prayed to Christ. According to the ancient tradition of the Church, the dead tree blossomed, and a spring of fresh water burst forth from the earth, a sign of life where there had been only dryness. But his journey was not yet finished. When Vasiliskos was brought to the temple of Apollo, he refused to sacrifice to idols. Instead, he offered to God a sacrifice of praise. Through his prayers, the idol was shattered, the false temple was put to shame, and many saw the power of the living God. Saint Vasiliskos was martyred near Comana, but he was not forgotten. More than a century later, Saint John Chrysostom, the great Archbishop of Constantinople, came to Comana during his final exile. Near the shrine of Saint Vasiliskos, around AD 407, Saint John reposed in the Lord after receiving the Holy Mysteries and saying his beloved words: “Glory to God for all things.” This richly illustrated Orthodox Christian story teaches children about courage, faithfulness, prayer, martyrdom, miracles, and the hope of Christ. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Feast Day of Saint Vasiliskos / Saint Basiliscus Eastern Orthodox Church — May 22 Greek Orthodox tradition — May 22 Byzantine Catholic tradition — May 22 Roman Catholic historical tradition / saint listings — May 22 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Watch more saint stories from Hearts, Brave and True:    • Lives of The Saints: May   Hearts, Brave and True Stories of saints for every child of faith. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ #SaintVasiliskos #OrthodoxSaints #ChristianStoriesForKids ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– © 2026 Hearts Brave and True. All rights reserved. Hearts Brave and True is a creative project under limited liability protection. For licensing or educational use: [email protected] This video contains music from Shutterstock, licensed by Splice video editing app.