Hesychius of Durostorum

Saint Hesychius, martyr, suffered at Durostorum (Dorostolon), today Silistra in Bulgaria, in the fourth century, at the beginning of the persecution of Diocletian. The Orthodox Church honours him as a saint. According to one source he was beheaded on 15 July 304.

Hesychius was a resident of the Roman city of Durostorum and a companion of Saint Julius. At the execution of Julius, in the same city, Hesychius was present and also showed himself to be a Christian. According to Blessed Jerome, who lived a century later, this act brought on the death sentence of Hesychius, who was put to the sword on 15 July 304.

Scholars suppose that on the site where the sentences on Christians were carried out, among them Hesychius, the episcopal basilica of Durostorum was built in the first half of the fourth century.