Anicetus of Melitene

Holy Martyr Anicetus of Melitene is commemorated on 20 November together with Holy Martyr Hieron and the other martyrs who suffered at Melitene, in Armenia, in the time of the emperors Diocletian and Maximian. The sources available to us give no further details of Anicetus himself; below is the story of Hieron and his companions.

Hieron was a strong man of Tyana, in Cappadocia, the pious son of Stratonica. When Lysias, sent by the emperors to gather an army and to kill the Christians who would not bow to idols, sent soldiers to take him, Hieron drove them off with a piece of wood and then withdrew into a cave with eighteen believers. A friend of his, Cyriacus, persuaded him gently to come out and go home to his mother, an old and blind widow, and then toward Melitene. At Melitene he was shut in prison with thirty-⁠three other Christians and urged them not to sacrifice to the idols. Brought to trial, they confessed the faith. Because he had beaten the soldiers, Hieron's hand was cut off, and the others were beaten without mercy; a kinsman of his, Victor, bribed a clerk to strike his name from the list and soon died, deprived of property, of life and of the martyr's crown. Hieron arranged what was to be done with his property and sent the severed hand to his mother. After five days the martyrs went singing to the place of execution, knelt in prayer and had their heads cut off. Hieron's head was ransomed with gold by a rich man, Chrysaphius, who later built a church on the place of execution, and the hand was brought to his mother, Stratonica.