Hieromartyr Heraclidius of Cyprus, Bishop of Tamassos

Heraclidius was born in the Cypriot village of Lampadou near Galata, to the pagan priest Hierocles. He was converted and baptized by the Apostles Paul, Barnabas, and Mark around 45-49 AD in the Solia River, according to the apocryphal Acts and Passion of the Apostle Barnabas. The Apostle Barnabas consecrated him the first bishop of the city of Tamassos. Heraclidius, together with his companion Mnason, preached extensively and worked miracles (including the raising of a certain Aetius) throughout Cyprus, baptizing hundreds of the island's inhabitants. He died peacefully in old age (tradition says around age 60), at the end of the 1st century, and was buried in the cave from which he had once preached; his relics (head and right hand) were later enshrined in a monastery founded in his name at Tamassos.

NOTE ON TITLING: despite the honor accorded him as "hieromartyr" in later Byzantine tradition (some sources even mention burning), the primary sources (pravenc.ru, drevo-info.ru) explicitly state a peaceful death — accounts of a violent death find no strict historical confirmation; the title "hieromartyr" is retained as the established liturgical usage, with an honest caveat about its honorific rather than strictly biographical character.