Martyr Chrysogonus of Rome

Martyr Chrysogonus was a pious and learned Roman Christian, mentor in the faith of the future Great Martyr Anastasia the Deliverer from Potions. During the persecution of Emperor Diocletian he was imprisoned, then brought to Aquileia, where the emperor himself personally interrogated him, seeking to make him renounce Christ. Unable to induce the saint to apostatize, Diocletian ordered him beheaded and his body thrown into the sea.

The waves carried the martyr's body and severed head ashore, where the presbyter Zoilus, receiving a revelation, found and preserved the holy remains. A later tradition (6th century) closely links him with Great Martyr Anastasia as Roman martyrs of the same era — according to her life, it was after the execution of her teacher Chrysogonus that Anastasia set out to help persecuted Christians, which later led her too to a martyr's crown.

His feast is kept on December 22/January 4.

NOTE: the original stub was an unprocessed image caption from pravicon.com for a Serbian fresco (Church of Christ Pantocrator, Dečani, Kosovo, c. 1350) — it has been reworked into a coherent life. The category has been clarified: established liturgical tradition calls him a "martyr" (not "hieromartyr") — he was a layman, not clergy.