Alvian of Anea

Holy Hieromartyr Albian (Alvan) was bishop of the city of Anea, in the Roman province of Asia, in Asia Minor, around the year 304. He suffered in the time of the emperors Diocletian and Maximian, when Asia was under the rule of Aelian. The Orthodox Church commemorates him together with his disciple on 4 May (17 May by the new calendar).

Bishop Albian was seized while the pagan priest Agrippinus was offering sacrifice to the idols. They tried to force him to sacrifice too, by casting incense on the altar, and according to his Life he answered that he praised faith in Christ and condemned the service of idols. For this they first burned his belly and shins with iron rods heated in the fire, then began to beat him with clubs.

He also had a disciple (or disciples), who suffered the torments with him. Albian and his disciple were condemned to burning and thrown into a blazing furnace. The Serbian source counts him among the saints of the third century, but the year 304 belongs to the fourth.