Martyr
Martyr Candidus of Trebizond
† нач. IV в. (ок. 303–305)
Martyr Candidus of Trebizond — together with the martyrs Valerian and Aquila, he hid in the mountains near Trebizond, where they destroyed a pagan shrine of Mithras; seized by order of the governor Lysias, he was tortured and cast into a heated furnace, from which he emerged unharmed, but was then beheaded together with his companions (later joined by Martyr Eugene, who suffered in the same way).
Martyr Candidus, together with the martyrs Valerian and Aquila, hid from persecutors in the mountains near the city of Trebizond during the persecution of Emperors Diocletian and Maximian (late 3rd–early 4th century), where, according to tradition, they destroyed a pagan shrine of Mithras on Mount Mithrion. He was tracked down and seized together with his companions by order of the governor Lysias.
He was subjected to cruel tortures — beaten with ox-sinew whips, his flesh scraped with iron, his wounds salted and burned — but remained firm in his confession of Christ. He was then cast into a heated furnace outside the walls of Trebizond, from which he emerged unharmed, after which he was beheaded by order of Lysias. Martyr Eugene, seized separately (according to tradition, later), endured the same torments and was executed together with them.
His feast is kept on January 21/February 3, together with the Martyrs Eugene, Valerian, and Aquila of Trebizond.
NOTE: the original stub was an unprocessed image caption from pravicon.com for an icon (Greece, before 1577, Dionysiou Monastery, Mount Athos) — it has been reworked into a coherent life; the previously empty feast-date and life-dates fields have been filled in. The feast date has been corrected per the official calendar (January 21/February 3, rather than the initially hypothesized December date).