Shortly afterwards (on the 11th of January), a pious man, called Peter, and surnamed Apselamus, was apprehended. He was a native of Amea, a village in the neighborhood of Elentheropolis. For some time he had led the life of a recluse, having retired into solitude to give himself over to divine meditations.
Though the Judge and the other members of the tribunal had begged him again and again, to have compassion upon himself and his youth (for he was yet in the bloom of life), he disregarded it all, putting his entire confidence in the living and true God, whom he loved more than all this world contains, yea, than his own life. Finally he suffered his confidence in Christ, his Savior, to be tried, as precious gold, by fire, and was burned alive at Cesarea, for the name of Jesus Christ, having commended his soul into the hands of God. Idem, Ibidem, ex Euseb., lib. 8.
BIBLIS, AQUILINA, AND FORTUNATA, THREE GODFEARING CHRISTIAN WOMEN, PUT TO DEATH FOR THE DIVINE TRUTH, IN PALESTINE, A. D. 308.
Among various other martyrs who suffered for the testimony of Jesus Christ in the seventh year of Diocletian’s persecution, we have noticed that there were also several honorable Christian women who, from love to their Savior, did not hesitate to give their lives for the truth. They were called Biblis, Aquilina, a girl of twelve years, and Fortunata, a maiden of Cesarea; who together laid down their lives for the truth, in Palestine. J. Gys., fol. 26, col. 3, compared with A. M., fol. 131, col. 3, ex Mart. Rom. Menol. Grec. Metaphrast. 13 Junii.
THE EIGHTH YEAR OF THE PERSECUTION, COMMENCED A. D. 309.
It is related that at this time the modes of torture and of putting to death were various. Some were beheaded with the axe, as was mostly done with the martyrs in Arabia. Some had their legs broken on the wheel, as was the case with those who confessed the name of Christ in Cappadocia. Others were hung up by their heels, with the head close to the ground, and then suffocated by a small fire, as was the case in Mesopotamia. Some had their noses, ears, hands, feet, and other members, cut off, as was done to those at Alexandria. At Antioch some were roasted on frying-pans, not unto death, but to intensify the pain. But the sufferings inflicted upon the poor martyrs in Pontus are horrible to relate; for some had sharp splints of reed thrust between the nails and the flesh of their fingers; others had melted lead poured over their naked bodies; some had their secret parts singed and seared, in the invention of which tortures the judges and proconsuls vied with one another, even as though they wished thereby to manifest their great ingenuity, and their tyranny against the Christians. See concerning, this, A. Mell., fol. 128, col. 1, 2.
TWO SISTERS AT ANTIOCH DROWNED IN THE SEA, BECAUSE THEY WOULD NOT RENOUNCE CHRIST THEIR SAVIOR, A. D. 309.
In the eighth year of Diocletian’s persecution, that is, A. D. 309, there were at Antioch two sisters, young maidens, of modest manners and pious life, intelligent and well-informed in the way of godliness; so that the world was not worthy, to contain them any longer. They were apprehended and examined, and, clinging steadfastly to Christ, cast into the depths of the sea, and drowned, by the servants of Satan. See the above named author, in the same book, fol. 129, col. 1, from Euseb.
IRENE AND HER TWO SISTERS, BURNED ALIVE FOR THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST, A. D. 309.
In the records written, through the clerk of the criminal court, by the Proconsul Dulcetius, concerning some pious martyrs, there is pronounced, at the close, a certain sentence of death over three sisters, who steadfastly continued in the truth of Christ. The last part of the aforementioned records contain, in regard to this, the following words: “And when he (Dulcetius) had demanded paper, he wrote this sentence of death: ‘Whereas Irene would not obey the decree of the Emperors, and sacrifice to the gods, and does still remain a Christian, therefore I command that she be burned alive, as her two sisters were.’ ”