Holy Martyrs Hippolytus, Irenaeus, Abundius and Concordia, Martyred in Rome (+258)

The holy Martyr Hippolytus served in Rome as warden of the prisons. He was converted to Christianity by Saint Laurence (commemorated 10 August). Hippolytus committed to the earth with honour the body of his teacher, who had died a martyr. When this was reported to the Emperor Valerian (253–259), he had Hippolytus seized and asked him with a laugh: “Hast thou too become a sorcerer, that thou hast stolen the body of Laurence?” In reply the saint boldly confessed Christ. The tormentors beat the blessed one with rods, but he glorified Christ unceasingly. The emperor ordered Saint Hippolytus to be dressed in military clothing, and then said to him: “Remember thy rank and renew thy friendship with us: offer sacrifice to the gods with us as before!” But the martyr answered: “I am a soldier of Christ, my Saviour, and for Him I wish to die.” Then all Hippolytus’s property was taken from him, his whole household was beheaded, and his nurse Concordia was drowned in water; the martyr himself was tied to maddened horses, which dragged him over stones until, his body torn and his head smashed, he gave up his spirit. This took place on 13 August 258, three days after the martyrdom of Saint Laurence.

At night the presbyter Justin secretly buried the martyrs at the place of execution, while the lawless threw the body of Saint Concordia into a foul place in Rome. Soon the Christians Irenaeus and Abundius learned from a soldier where the blessed martyr’s body was; they reverently carried it away and buried it beside Saint Hippolytus. For this they too, like Concordia, were drowned in water on 26 August. The Christians committed the bodies of the God-pleasers to the earth near the grave of Saint Laurence.