April 13th.

SS. Carpus, Papylus & Agathonice.

Martyrs of Pergamum, in Asia Minor, in 170, victims of a persecution by the Emperor Marcus Aurelius.  Carpus was a bishop, Papylus a deacon, Agathonice the latter’s sister.  The ‘Acts’ [account] of their martyrdom at the hands of the proconsul Optimus has survived and is full of heroic and stirring words of defiant faith.  Carpus: “The gods are unfeeling; deprive them our your veneration and they will be defiled by dogs and crows.  I have never before sacrificed to images which have no feeling or understanding”.   Papylus: “I have many children, in virtue of the faith of the Christians; spiritual children in every province and city.  I feel no pain because I have someone to comfort me; one whom you do not see suffers within me”.  Agathonice: “If I am worthy I desire to follow the footsteps of my teachers.  My children have God, who watches over them”.  They were sentenced to be tortured with clawing instruments and then burnt alive.