Desiderius of Pozzuoli

Holy Martyr Desiderius of Pozzuoli was a lector, that is, a minister among the clergy, and received a martyr's death around the year 305, in the time of the persecution of the Emperor Diocletian (284-305), together with Bishop Januarius, the deacons Proculus, Sossius and Faustus, and Eutychius and Acutius.

Bishop Januarius was seized and brought to trial before the governor of Campania, Timothy. Because he confessed the Christian faith firmly, he was thrown into a heated furnace, but came out unharmed, like the youths in Babylon. Then, at Timothy's command, he was stretched on a rack and beaten with iron rods until his bones were laid bare.

In the crowd that had gathered were the deacon Faustus and the lector Desiderius, who wept at the sight of their bishop's sufferings. The pagans understood that they were Christians and threw them into the prison of Pozzuoli with the bishop. There were already held, for confessing Christ, the deacons Sossius and Proculus and two laymen, Eutychius and Acutius.

The next morning all were led into the circus to be torn by wild beasts, but the beasts did not touch them. Timothy said that all the wonders came from the sorcery of the Christians, but he was struck blind on the spot and cried out for help. Bishop Januarius prayed for his healing, and Timothy saw again. But the blindness of his soul did not leave him, and he ordered all the martyrs to be beheaded outside the city.

Christians of the surrounding cities took the bodies for burial, each city taking one, so as to have an intercessor before God. The people of Naples took the body of Bishop Januarius and gathered his congealed blood from the ground. It is said that when the vessel with the blood was placed on the relics of the saint in the church of Naples, the blood dissolved and became warm, as if just shed. Many miracles came from his relics, and at the eruption of Vesuvius the lava stopped before the city when the people prayed to him.

The Synaxarion commemorates them all on 4 May (new style).