Venerable Martyr Paphnutius of Egypt and the 546 Martyrs with Him (III)

The Venerable Martyr Paphnutius was an Egyptian and laboured in the desert. During Diocletian’s (284–305) persecution of the Christians the governor Arianus ordered the hermit to be brought to him, but Paphnutius did not wait for those sent and came before the ruler himself. There the blessed one openly confessed Christ, for which he was handed over for torture. The soldiers Dionysius and Callimachus, who were torturing the saint, saw how the power of God protected him, and believed in Christ the Saviour. By the governor’s order the saints were put to death at once.

Thrown into prison after his torture, Paphnutius converted forty prisoners to the law of Christ. The godless burned them all. Some time later the blessed hermit was released. A Christian, Nestor, received him kindly, after which the host’s whole family was strengthened still more in the law of Christ and died as martyrs. Paphnutius encouraged many more of the Orthodox and kindled in them the desire for martyrdom. Through the preaching of Saint Paphnutius five hundred and forty-six people were converted to Christianity, and all of them died as martyrs. Saint Paphnutius himself was thrown into a river with a stone tied to his neck, but by the will of God he was miraculously cast up on the bank. At last he was sent to the Emperor Diocletian, by whose order he was nailed to a palm tree, and so they took his life.