Thyrsus

Saint Thyrsus the Martyr was killed for faith in Christ at Apollonia in Phrygia, in the persecution of Decius, with Saints Leucius and Callinicus. The Church remembers him on 14 December and on 17 August, and the three are remembered together. His veneration spread widely in the Iberian Peninsula, where he is called Santo Tirso and San Tirso.

According to tradition he was born at Caesarea in Bithynia and suffered under Decius (249 to 251), because he rebuked the governor Cumbricius for his cruelty toward Christians. He endured many tortures and was sentenced to be sawn in two, but the saw became so heavy that the executioners could not use it. Imprisoned, he received freedom at Decius's death. According to some sources he suffered at Apollonia together with Leucius and Callinicus. Leucius, after rebuking the governor, was hanged, torn at the sides and then beheaded. Callinicus, a pagan priest, was converted on seeing the martyrdom of Thyrsus and was also beheaded.

Around 397 Flavius Caesarius built outside the walls of Constantinople a fine church in honour of the martyrs Thyrsus, Leucius and Callinicus, in which their relics were placed. Another church was built by Emperor Justinian near the Helenianai, close to the harbour of Theodosius. His veneration spread from the Middle Ages in Spain and Portugal, where he had a full office in the Mozarabic liturgy. Some of his relics came to France: he is patron of the city of Sisteron, whose cathedral, Notre-⁠Dame et Saint-⁠Thyrse, bears his name, and a twelfth-⁠century church at Châteauponsac is dedicated to him.