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Thursday, November 12
Prophet Ahijah the Shilonite
Sinaxarion

Martyr

Philomenus

Martyr of Ancyra

A martyr at Ancyra, remembered in the ancient martyrologies of the Church.

Feast
November 29old style December 12
Era
3rd century
Order
Martyrs

Life

Holy Martyr Philomenus was a Christian from Lycaonia who suffered at Ancyra in Galatia in the time of the emperor Aurelian (270 to 275).

He came to Ancyra on private business. Discovered to be a Christian, he was arrested, tortured and then killed on the order of the prefect Felix, pierced with nails. These few facts, probably drawn from a lost passion, are found in the old synaxarion of Constantinople under 29 November; in the sixteenth century Cardinal Caesar Baronius also entered them in the Roman Martyrology. He is venerated in the Orthodox Church and in the Catholic Church as a saint of the undivided Church.

He is not to be confused with Saint Philomena, honoured in the West after the discovery of a tomb in the catacomb of Priscilla in 1802.

Commemorated the same day November 29