Agathonicus

Holy Martyr Agathonicus was a Christian of Nicomedia, martyred in the time of the great persecution, together with his companions. The Orthodox Church remembers him on 22 August, the Catholic Church on 21 August. Our sources do not agree on the time: they speak of the third century, of the fourth century, of about the year 305 and of the year 298.

The seizure

Agathonicus was a citizen of Nicomedia and, living for a time in Greece, taught the Greeks Christianity, most of them pagans. In the time of the persecution begun at the order of the emperor Maximian, the count of the East, Eutolmius, went through the region of Pontus to persecute the Christians. On his return he found at Carpe Zoticus, whom he killed together with his disciples, or, by other sources, the disciples were crucified and Zoticus was taken to Nicomedia. There he learned that the prince of the city (one source writes it as a name, Princeps) had been made a Christian by one Agathonicus. Then Eutolmius seized the prince and Agathonicus, as well as other Christians, among them Theoprepius (Bogolep), Acindynus, Severian and Zeno, and, after tormenting them, led them all to the emperor, who was in Thrace.

The road and death

Our sources say different things about the journey. According to one, near a village called Potamos, Eutolmius killed Zeno, Theoprepius, Acindynus and Severian, because from the many wounds on their feet they could no longer walk. According to another, on the way Zoticus, Theoprepius and Acindynus died, and Severian was killed at Chalcedon. Arriving at the village of Ammous (Epibates in Thrace), near Selymbria, by order of the emperor Agathonicus, the prince and the other Christians were beheaded, bound as they were, in the year 298 according to the Greek source. The Serbian source says they were put to death by the sword after torments, before the emperor Maximian himself.

Veneration

In Constantinople a church dedicated to Saint Agathonicus was later built. His relics were seen in this church, in the year 1200, by the Russian pilgrim Anthony, later archbishop of Novgorod. His venerable head is kept in the Holy Metropolitan church of Saint John the Baptist in Kavala, in Greece.