(A.D. 250.)
[Roman Kalendar on Jan. 28th; Greek Menaea on Dec. 14th; Mart.
attributed to S. Jerome on Jan. 20th. The martyrs not having all
suffered the same day or in the same places, has led to
considerable variety in the days of their commemoration. Their Acts
are extant in three forms, agreeing together in most particulars,
and evidently amplifications by different hands of the original
Acts. They are not to be implicitly relied upon.]
In the reign of the Emperor Decius, Combritius, the governor of
Bithynia, made the circuit of the province, to carry into execution the
severe imperial edict against the Christians. Being a man of a naturally
cruel disposition he subjected those brought before him to the most
exquisite torments his ingenuity could devise. Thyrsus had his eyelids
pierced, and rings put through them, and molten lead was poured down his
back. His arms and legs were broken. He died in prison. Leucius was hung
up, and torn with iron hooks, and then decapitated; Callinicus and
several others suffered in this persecution by various deaths.