Saint of the Day – 22 December – Saint Ischyrion (Died c250) Martyr of Alexandria, Officier of the Imperial Army in Egypt. Also known as – Ischirione
The Roman Martyrology reads today: “At Alexandria, the holy Martyr, Ischyrion. Because he despised all the cruelties they made him suffer to force him to sacrifice to idols, they transpierced his bowels with a sharp pointed stake and thus put him to death.”
Ischyrion was a subordinate Officer serving under a Magistrate in Egypt. His master commanded him to offer sacrifice to the idols and because he refused to commit that sacrilege, reproached him in the most abusive and threatening language.
Giving way to passion and superstition, the Commanding Officer at length worked himself up to such a degree of frenzy as to run a stake into the entrails of the meek servant of Christ, who by his patient constancy attained to the glory of Martyrdom.
Reflection: It is not a man’s terrestrial condition but his virtue which can make him truly great and truly happy. However lowly a person’s station or circumstances may be, the road to both greatness and happiness, is open to him. And, there is not a servant or slave, whom God will not sustain, if he is enflamed with the laudable ambition of arriving at the summit of Christian perfection. (Rev Fr Alban Butler).
St Abban of New Ross Bl Adam of Saxony St Amaswinthus of Málaga St Athernaise of Fife St Bertheid of Münster St Chaeremon of Nilopolis
St Flavian (Died 363) Martyr Layman, Prefect of Imperial Rome, Husband of Saint Dafrosa, Father of Saint Bibiana and Saint Demetria. The Roman Martyrology states: “At Rome, ex-Prefect, who, under Julian the Apostate, was condemned to be branded for Christ and banished to Aquae Taurinae, where he gave up his soul to God in prayer.” His Life and Death: https://anastpaul.com/2021/12/22/saint-of-the-day-22-december-saint-flavian-of-acquapendente-died-363-martyr/
Blessed Thomas Holland SJ (1600-1642) Priest of the Society of Jesus and Martyr. of England and Wales. With eyes closed in prayer, Fr Holland looked at a Priest secretly in the crowd and received absolution. After he was hanged, his body was beheaded and quartered and exposed on London Bridge. Fr Holland was only forty-two years of age and a Jesuit for eighteen years. Pope Pius XI Beatified him on 15 December 1929. His Life and Death: https://anastpaul.com/2019/12/22/saint-of-the-day-22-december-blessed-thomas-holland-sj-1600-1642-priest-and-martyr-his-faith-was-his-crime/
Martyrs of Ostia – 3 Saints: A group of Christians Martyred together. The only details about them to survive are three names – Demetrius, Florus and Honoratus. They were martyred at Ostia, Italy.
Martyrs of Rhaitu – 43 Saints: 43 Monks Martyred by Blemmyes, in Raíthu, Egypt, date unknown.
Martyrs of Via Lavicana – 30 Saints: A group of 30 Christians Martyred together in the persecutions of Diocletian. Died in c 303 in Rome, Italy and were buried between two bay trees on the Via Lavicana outside Rome.
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