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St. Aphian
St. Aphian (or
Apian), an illustrious martyr, under the Emperor Maximian, c. 306. He
was only eighteen when he entered the temple at Cæsarea, where
the prefect Urbanus was offering sacrifice. Seizing the outstretched
hand that was presenting the incense, he reproached the magistrate
with the idolatrous act. The guards fell upon him furiously and,
after cruelly torturing him, flung him into a dungeon. The next day
he was brought before the Prefect, torn with iron claws, beaten with
clubs, and burned over a slow fire, and then sent back to
confinement. After three days he was again taken from prison and
thrown into the sea with stones tied to his feet. Eusebius, an
eyewitness, declares that an earthquake simultaneously shook the
city, and that the sea flung up his corpse on the shore. He belonged
to Lycia, but had withdrawn to Cappadocia because his parents, who
were both distinguished and rich, resisted his efforts to convert
them to Christianity. St. Pamphilus was at Cæsarea at the time,
expounding Holy Scripture, and the young Aphian was one of his
disciples. He lived at the house of Eusebius, but gave no intimation
of his purpose to make the public protest which ended in his
martyrdom. The Greeks refer to him as the brother of St. Ædisius.
In the old martyrologies his feast was on the fifth, but the
Bollandists pronounce for the second of April as the correct date.
T.J. CAMPBELL
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