Nestor of Magydos

Saint Nestor, hieromartyr, was bishop of Magydos in Pamphylia, in Asia Minor, in the territory of modern Turkey, and is also called Nestor of Perge. He suffered around 250, in the persecution of Emperor Decius. He is commemorated on 28 February, and the Roman Catholic Church commemorates him on 25 February.

Little is known about him. It is said that he had such gentleness, courage and authority that a Roman magistrate is reported to have said: "Until we have got the better of the bishop, we shall be powerless against the Christians." In the time of Decius he was arrested while praying in his house. The archon Irenarchus took him into custody and sent him to the judgement of the governor, named Pollio or Epolius of Lycia (the Byzantine source says Poplias or Publius, in Perge of Pamphylia). Before him Nestor confessed Christ as true God and, because he refused to sacrifice to the gods of the state, was condemned to death. According to the Synaxarion of the Church of Constantinople (tenth century) and the Menologion of Basil II (end of the tenth century), he was crucified; the Menologion shows him nailed to a cross. The Serbian source adds that before death he saw in a vision a sacrificial lamb, which he understood as a sign of his own coming sacrifice, and that he had earlier been tortured by the eparch Publius. The Serbian Orthodox Church commemorates him on 28 February by the old calendar, that is 13 March by the new one.