The Holy Martyrs Trophimus, Sabbatius, and Dorymedon suffered for Christ during the reign of the Roman emperor Probus (276-282).
A pagan festival was being celebrated in the city of Antioch. Sacrificial offerings were brought, the wine was poured, and vile acts were performed. The Christians Trophimus and Sabbatius arrived in the city just as the festival was taking place, and were saddened by this loud and indecent spectacle. They prayed that the Lord would guide the errant on the way of salvation. As they said this, the idolaters noticed their presence. Seeing that the strangers did not worship the idols, they arrested them and took them to the governor.
At their interrogation, the saints firmly confessed their faith. When they were told to renounce Christ, they resolutely refused to do so. Saint Sabbatius died under fierce torment. Saint Trophimus was sent to the city of Synnada in Phrygia for even more terrible tortures.
For three days Saint Trophimus walked shod in iron sandals with sharp nails, driven on by a cavalry guard. The governor of Frigius, Dionysius, infamous as a torturer and executioner, used all manner of tortures to break the will of the brave Christian. Saint Trophimus merely repeated the words of Scripture: “many afflictions has the righteous one, but from them, all will the Lord deliver him” (Ps 33/34:20).
The senator Dorymedon, a secret Christian, visited Saint Trophimus in prison, washing and binding his wounds. When the pagans learned that the senator would not participate in the festival of Castor and Pollux, they asked the reason for his refusal. He said that he was a Christian, and would not attend a festival in honor of the demons. He and Saint Trophimus were thrown to the wild beasts to be eaten by them, but the martyrs remained unharmed. Then they were beheaded with the sword.
In 278, during the reign of Probus, Saints Trophimus and Sabbatius came to Antioch, and seeing the city celebrating the festival of Apollo at Daphne lamented the blindness of the people, and presented themselves as Christians to Atticus the Governor. Saint Trophimus was stripped of his clothing and was stretched out and beaten until the earth was red with his blood. Then he was hung up, scraped on his sides, and imprisoned in torments. Saint Sabbatius was tortured so savagely that he gave up his spirit in his sufferings. Trophimus was sent to Synnada, wearing iron shoes fitted with sharp iron nails within; he was further tormented without mercy, and then cast into prison. Dorymedon, a counsellor, and a pagan, came to the prison and cared for Trophimus. When a certain feast came, Dorymedon was asked why he did not sacrifice to the idols; he proclaimed himself a Christian, for which he was imprisoned, pierced with heated spits, frightfully punished, and finally beheaded with Saint Trophimus.
In the third century, during the reign of Emperor Probus, when Atticus was governing Antioch, two Christians, Trophimus and Sabbatius, eminent and honorable citizens, came to that city. They arrived just as a pagan festival and sacrificial offerings to the idol of Apollo were taking place at nearby Daphne. Atticus made every effort to ensure that all citizens participated in this festivity. When someone noticed that Trophimus and Sabbatius were not participating in the festivity, he told Atticus. Atticus brought them to trial, and when they refused to renounce Christ he subjected them to torture, one after the other. After he beat and tortured Trophimus, Atticus sent him to Phrygia to Dionysius, an even crueler torturer of Christians.
Then Atticus took Sabbatius from prison and began to try him. When the torturer asked Sabbatius who he was and what his rank was, he replied: “My rank and dignity and homeland and glory and wealth is Christ, the Son of God, Who lives forever, and by Whose providence the universe exists and is governed.” For that, he was beaten and torn and scraped with an iron implement until the bones showed through beneath his flesh. Under these tortures he reposed. In Phrygia, the torturer Dionysius subjected Trophimus to great torture, then kept him in prison for even greater tortures.
A certain senator Dorymedon, a secret Christian, came to the prison and ministered to Trophimus. When the torturer learned of this, he began to torture both of them in the same way and finally threw them to the wild beasts, but the wild beasts did not touch them. Holy Dorymedon even shouted at the she-bear, pulling her ears so that she would tear him apart, but despite all that, the bear became gentler. In the end, the torturer ordered that Saints Trophimus and Dorymedon be beheaded with the sword. The souls of both of these holy martyrs now reign in heaven.
