Philetus, Lydia and Their Companions

Philetus, Lydia and Their Companions are, according to tradition, Christians of Illyria put to death as martyrs in the persecution of Hadrian in the second century: Philetus, Lydia, their sons Macedo and Theoprepius, the officer Amphilochius and the jailer Chronides. Their passion is regarded by hagiographers as legendary and fabulous, and the Catalan source says that in reality they did not exist.

According to the passion, Philetus was a noble senator of Illyria, married to Lydia, and Macedo and Theoprepius were their sons. Being Christians, they were imprisoned by order of Hadrian, who gave them to the officer Amphilochius to torment until they gave up the faith. Amphilochius saw that the whole family endured the torments without renouncing Christ, reflected on it, and became a Christian; the same happened with Chronides, the keeper of the prison. They were all put to death in a great vessel full of boiling oil.

The Eastern synaxaria commemorate them on 27, 28 or 29 March; the Roman Martyrology gave only 27 March, but its latest edition no longer includes them, since it has been shown that they did not exist. In 1619 the false chronicle attributed to Lucius Flavius Dexter was published, which made the six Illyrian martyrs natives of Barcelona; this story has never been recognized by the Church or by historians.