Dioscorus the New

Holy Martyr Dioscorus the New, also called Dioscoridus, suffered at Smyrna in Asia Minor, today Izmir in Turkey. The time of his martyrdom is not known.

Dioscorus preached Christianity and baptized many pagans. He was seized and scourged. Brought before the archon, he confessed himself a Christian and for this spent a long time in prison. Then he was brought before the archon again and tortured, but he did not deny Christ, so he was condemned to death and beheaded.

A few brief notices of him are found in the Menologion of the Emperor Basil II, from the end of the tenth century, in the Synaxarion of the Church of Constantinople, and in the Typikon of the Great Church. In the Greek verse synaxaria the martyr is called Dioscorus. It is thought that he was called Dioscoridus or Dioscorus the New to distinguish him from the saint of the same name who suffered in the time of Diocletian, commemorated by the Greeks on 13 October.

The Greeks commemorate him on 11 May, and the Russian calendar lists him on 24 May (new style). He is not included in the present calendar of the Russian Church.