Martyr Crescens

The holy Martyr Crescens of Myra in Lycia was the son of a noble family. Once, when the inhabitants of the city were going to a pagan temple, he began to preach and urged the pagans to accept Christianity. The saint was arrested and brought before the governor of the city. When they asked Crescens who he was, he answered that he was a Christian. The governor knew the saint’s father and advised the prisoner to offer sacrifice to the idols for others to see, while remaining a Christian in his heart. The holy martyr declared: “It is impossible for the body to do what the soul does not wish, for the soul rules it and moves it.”

Saint Crescens was cruelly tortured, and at last thrown into a red-hot furnace.

Saint Andrew of Crete (+740, commemorated 4 July) mentions Saint Crescens in his homily for the day of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker.