Martyrs Amphianus and Aedesius (+306)

The Martyrs Amphianus and Aedesius (+306) were brothers; they lived in Patara (the province of Lycia), in the family of the idol-worshipping governor of the city. They were sent to the city of Berytus to master pagan learning. There the brothers were converted to the law of Christ and became His ardent followers; then they left their pagan parents and went to Caesarea, where they found a teacher, the presbyter Pamphilus, and began their ascetic labours under his guidance.

At that time, by order of the Emperor Maximian (+305–313), all the inhabitants of Caesarea had to offer sacrifice to the idols. Many Christians fled the temptation of idol-worship and took refuge in remote places. Saints Amphianus and Aedesius also went into hiding, but once, when the governor of the city went into the temple to offer sacrifice, Saint Amphianus boldly approached him and urged him to abandon false worship and turn to the law of Christ. By the governor’s order Saint Amphianus was seized, cruelly beaten, and thrown into a cell. For two days they tortured the young martyr, beat him with an iron rod, and burned his body with flax soaked in oil; at last they hung a stone round his neck and threw him into the sea. The waves cast the martyr’s body up on the shore. The Christians committed it to the earth with honour.

Aedesius too was cruelly tortured and then sent to work in the copper mines. Some years later he was released and exiled to Alexandria. There he denounced Hierocles, the governor of the city, for his boundless cruelty to the Christians, for which he was cruelly tortured and, like his brother, drowned in the sea (+306).