Holy Martyrs Carpus, Bishop of Thyatira, Papylus the Deacon, Agathodorus and Agathonica (†251) — October 13 / October 26 (Julian Calendar)

On this day, October 13 according to the Julian Calendar (October 26 civil calendar), the Georgian Orthodox Church commemorates the Holy Martyrs Carpus, Bishop of Thyatira, Papylus the Deacon, Agathodorus and Agathonica.

The holy martyrs Carpus, Bishop of Thyatira, Papylus the Deacon, Agathodorus and Agathonica suffered for Christ, according to one account, in the reign of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius (160–181), and according to another source, under Decius (249–251), in the year 251.

The governor of the province where these chosen ones of the Lord lived learned that Carpus and Papylus took no part in the pagan festivals, and he ordered the lawbreakers brought before him. At the judge’s command the saints were stripped, bound in fetters and led around the whole city. Then they were tied to horses and dragged from Thyatira in Lydia to the neighbouring city of Sardis. Their servant Agathodorus willingly followed the martyrs, and the executioners killed him by flogging him with ox sinews. After these torments Carpus and Papylus were sent to the city of Pergamon in Mysia. There the saints were terribly tortured and finally cast into a heated furnace. Saint Agathonica entered the furnace together with the martyrs, but by the will of God all of them remained unharmed: a heavy rain suddenly poured down from heaven and quenched the fire. The godless then beheaded all three.