Martyr
Martyr Kion of Kandavla
† 305–311
Also known as: Океан
Martyr Kion of Kandavla — together with the Martyrs Theodore, Mian, and Julian, suffered in the village of Kandavla near Nicomedia in Bithynia during the persecution of Emperor Maximian (305-311): torn with iron claws, they were shut in an overheated bathhouse but delivered unharmed by an angel, then seized again and burned at the stake after their knees were crushed.
Martyrs Theodore, Mian, Julian, and Kion suffered for Christ in the village of Kandavla near Nicomedia in Bithynia, during the persecution of Emperor Maximian (305-311). For confessing the faith they were torn with iron claws, then shut in an excessively heated bathhouse, sealed with the imperial seal, to die of heat and suffocation — but were miraculously delivered unharmed by an angel.
Seized again, the martyrs were led outside the city; given time to pray, they had their knees crushed and were burned at the stake.
NOTE ON A TEXTUAL VARIANT: some Byzantine sources (unlike the Menologion of Basil II, which names four) mention a fifth martyr of this group, Kentyrion (Kentourion), whom Archbishop Sergius (Spassky) in some lists identifies with Kion under the alternate name "Oceanus" — this variant does not change the substance of the life but explains an alternate name found in some sources.
Their feast is kept on September 4/17.
NOTE: the original stub was an unprocessed image caption from pravicon.com for a miniature from the Menologion of Emperor Basil II (Constantinople, 985, Vatican Library) — it has been reworked into a coherent life; the previously empty feast-date and life-dates fields have been filled in.