Saint Agathodorus was an early Christian martyr in
Pergamon
Pergamon or Pergamum ( or ; grc-gre, Πέργαμον), also referred to by its modern Greek form Pergamos (), was a rich and powerful ancient Greek city in Mysia. It is located from the modern coastline of the Aegean Sea on a promontory on th ...
, Asia Minor.
Life
Agathodorus was a servant of
Carpus, Papylus, and Agathonice.
He was killed by the Romans to encourage his Christian masters to denounce their faith, but they refused and were also martyred.
Probably the martyrdom occurred during the persecution of the Christians under the Roman Emperor
Decius
Gaius Messius Quintus Traianus Decius ( 201 ADJune 251 AD), sometimes translated as Trajan Decius or Decius, was the emperor of the Roman Empire from 249 to 251.
A distinguished politician during the reign of Philip the Arab, Decius was pro ...
, but some sources place it one hundred years earlier under the Emperor
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Latin: áːɾkus̠ auɾέːli.us̠ antɔ́ːni.us̠ English: ; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD and a Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known as the Five Good ...
.
His feast day is 13 April.
Butler's account
The hagiographer
Alban Butler
Alban Butler (13 October 171015 May 1773) was an English Roman Catholic priest and hagiographer.
Biography
Alban Butler was born in 1710, at Appletree, Aston le Walls, Northamptonshire, the second son of Simon Butler, Esq. His father died whe ...
wrote in his ''Lives of the fathers, martyrs, and other principal saints'' (1821),
Notes
Sources
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3rd-century Christian saints