Carterius

Holy Martyr Carterius lived in the time of the Emperor Diocletian and the governor Urban of Caesarea of Cappadocia. He was a priest and teacher of Christians. He built a small church in which many Christians gathered and taught them there, for which he was denounced to the governor. Denounced, Carterius fled, but, according to Christian tradition, God appeared to him and said: "Go, Carterius, and present yourself to those who seek you, and I will be with you."

Then Carterius went and presented himself to the authorities. He was imprisoned at once and then brought before the governor, who ordered him to sacrifice to Serapis. According to Christian tradition, through his prayer the statue fell. For this sixteen soldiers beat him with rods, then hung him on a tree, tore out the nails of his hands and feet and scraped his body with iron combs. Christians believe an angel helped him endure the torments and then healed him, but that afterwards he was tortured again: they pierced his ankles with iron, drove a red-⁠hot ploughshare into his chest, put him on a red-⁠hot iron chair and shut him in prison again. But at night God appeared to him again, removed his shackles, healed him and brought him out of the prison. Many pagans then came to him and he baptized them. For this he was tortured again: they tied heavy stones to his hands and feet and beat him with rods on the belly, burned him with torches while others poured sulphur and pitch on him, poured molten lead into his mouth and, finally, threw him into a red-⁠hot furnace. According to Christian tradition, he stood in the fire unharmed, offering glory and praise to God, which angered a Jew, who pierced his ribs with a spear; from the ribs flowed water, which put out the fire in the furnace, and then blood. Carterius was tortured and killed in the year 304. The Church commemorates him on 8 January by the old calendar (21 January by the new).