Pontius of Cimiez

Saint Pontius of Cimiez (Pons, Ponce), martyr, is venerated as a martyr in Gaul, at Cimiez (today part of Nice), in the second half of the third century, around 257. His story comes from a late account of his passion, which historians consider largely legendary. He is a saint of Western Christendom, and our sources do not show an Orthodox act of canonization. He is commemorated on 14 May and, according to the calendar in the sources, on 5 August.

The story

According to the account of his passion, Pontius was born into the family of a pagan Roman senator, Marcus, and Julia, after more than twenty years of childless marriage. In the fifth month of the pregnancy the mother came to the temple of Zeus, where the priest, with a wreath on his head, suddenly began to cry out weeping that the woman carried in her womb the one who would destroy the temple and the gods. Terrified, the parents fled home, and the mother struck her womb with a stone so as not to bear him. Yet she bore a healthy child. She wanted to kill him, but Marcus opposed it, saying that if Zeus wished, he would avenge himself on his enemy. The child was named Pontius. He grew up with the mind and learning of a philosopher, and one morning he passed a Christian house where the faithful were singing morning psalms with Pope Pontian. He wept and cried out to God to teach him to know Him, went in, stood in a corner until the end of the service and asked the pope for explanations, and then became a Christian.

According to the late story, the emperors Philip and his son, to whom he was a wise counsellor, came through his words to believe in Christ and no longer went to offer sacrifice in the Capitol. Later Valerian and Gallienus sent into Gaul the persecutors Claudius and Anabius. At Cimela the two offered sacrifices to the gods and ordered Christians to be seized. Pontius, as a distinguished and noble man, was brought first for judgment and was thrown into prison in chains until the emperors should order. Their answer was to kill him if he would not sacrifice. He answered that he had no other lord than the Lord Jesus Christ.

According to tradition, when the servants tried to bind him to the rack, the instruments broke to pieces and the executioners fell as if dead. He was given to two bears in the circus, but the beasts, without touching him, fell upon the guards and tore them apart. The crowd cried out that the God of the Christians is one. The kindled pyre did not burn him, nor his clothing. The Jews present cried out that the sorcerer be killed, and he thanked the Lord, remembering how they had cried out to Pontius Pilate: crucify Him. He was sentenced to beheading and executed outside the city in the year 257. The body was buried by his friend and contemporary Valerius, who also wrote of his life and death.