Dioscorus of Perge

Holy Martyr Dioscorus of Perge suffered in the time of the Emperor Antoninus Pius (138-161) at Perge in Pamphylia, together with Theodore, his mother Philippia, and Socrates and Dionysius. He had been a priest of the idols and turned to Christ through the miracle seen at the martyrdom of Theodore.

When handsome and healthy young men were being chosen for the army, the youth Theodore was brought, among others, to the commander Theodotus. He could not be persuaded to sacrifice to the idols either by kind words or by threats, and he was laid on a red-⁠hot pan and drenched with molten pitch. Then an earthquake came, and from a cleft in the earth a stream of water burst forth and put out the fire. Theodore, left unharmed, praised God and invited the commander to try the same wonder with his idols.

The commander called the pagan priest Dioscorus to lie on the heated pan, calling Zeus to his aid. Dioscorus answered that he had believed in Christ and was ready to throw the idol of Zeus into the fire. Then the commander ordered him to go up on the pan. Dioscorus bowed at the feet of Theodore, asking him to pray for him, went up on the pan and cried to the Lord, thanking Him for numbering him among His servants and asking Him to receive his soul in peace. So he gave up his spirit, delivered from the heavy torment.

They continued to torture Theodore: they tied him to wild horses, but the horses fell and were shattered by the city wall, and he remained unharmed. Two soldiers, Socrates and Dionysius, saw a chariot of fire come down from heaven, in which the martyr who was being dragged was lifted up, and they cried out in wonder that great is the God of the Christians.

For this they were seized and the next day thrown with Theodore into a heated furnace, but a heavenly dew cooled the furnace and they remained alive. In the morning the commander sent soldiers to see the bones of those burned, and they came back saying that the three youths were unharmed and that Theodore's mother Philippia had come to him and was strengthening the martyrs.

The commander asked Philippia to save her son by urging him to sacrifice to the idols. She answered that before her son was born it had been revealed to her that he would be crucified for Christ. Hearing this, the commander ordered Theodore to be crucified and the other martyrs beheaded. For three days Theodore hung on the cross, praying to God, until he departed to the Lord.

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