Agapitus of Rome

Saint Agapitus of Rome, hieromartyr and deacon, suffered in the year 258, in the time of the emperor Valerian (253 to 259), together with Pope Sixtus II, the deacon Felicissimus and the archdeacon Laurence; the soldier Romanus is also commemorated with them. They are commemorated on 23 August.

Pope Sixtus, a native of Athens, received a good education, preached in Spain and was made bishop of Rome after the martyrdom of Pope Stephen (253 to 257). It was a time when the man chosen for the throne of Rome was in fact chosen for death. Soon Sixtus too was seized and imprisoned, with his two deacons, Felicissimus and Agapitus. The archdeacon Laurence saw the pope led to prison and, weeping, asked why he was leaving the archdeacon with whom he had always offered the bloodless Sacrifice, and begged to be taken too. Sixtus answered that he was not abandoning him: he himself, being old, went to an easy death, while harder sufferings were appointed for Laurence, who would follow him after three days. Until then Laurence was to sell the treasures of the Church and distribute them to the persecuted and needy Christians, which he zealously did.

When the pope was brought to trial with his deacons, Laurence followed them and told Sixtus that he had distributed the treasure entrusted to him. The soldiers, hearing of a treasure, took him into custody, and Sixtus, Felicissimus and Agapitus were beheaded on 6 August 258. Laurence was placed in the charge of the jailer Hippolytus. In prison he healed the sick by prayer and baptized many, among them Hippolytus with all his household. Brought again before the emperor, who demanded the hidden treasures, he asked for three days; in that time he gathered the poor and sick who were fed from the Church's alms and showed them to the judge as the true treasure of the Church.

After that Laurence was cruelly tortured to force him to worship idols: he was struck with a chain set with needles, his wounds were burned, and he was beaten with leaden rods. During this the soldier Romanus saw beside the martyr a radiant youth wiping his wounds, and asked to be baptized. Immediately after baptism his head was cut off, on 9 August. Laurence was then laid on an iron grate with coals burning beneath; speaking to the judges, he told them to turn him to the other side, since one side was already roasted. He gave up his soul giving thanks to Christ. Hippolytus took the body by night, wrapped it in linen with spices and buried it in a cave on 10 August 258, after a vigil and a Liturgy held at the house of the widow Cyriaca. Hippolytus and other Christians suffered three days later, on 13 August, as Laurence had foretold.