Martyr
Martyr Claudius of Byzantium
† ок. 270–275
Martyr Claudius — one of four young confessors (together with Hypatius, Paul, and Dionysius) whom the elderly Martyr Lucillian, a former pagan priest converted to Christ, met in prison; all were brought to trial during the persecution of Emperor Aurelian (270-275), cast into a furnace and miraculously delivered by rain, and finally the four youths were beheaded by the sword while Lucillian was crucified.
Martyr Claudius was one of four young Christians (together with Hypatius, Paul, and Dionysius) imprisoned at Nicomedia, where they met the elderly Hieromartyr Lucillian — a former pagan priest converted to Christ, already tortured (his jaw broken, beaten, hung head-down) for confessing the faith during the persecution of Emperor Aurelian (270-275).
All five (the four youths and Lucillian) were brought to trial together, cast into a heated furnace, which was miraculously extinguished by a sudden rain. Then the four youths — Claudius, Hypatius, Paul, and Dionysius — were beheaded by the sword, while Lucillian was crucified. The virgin Paula, who had ministered to the imprisoned Christians and witnessed their struggle, later herself suffered martyrdom and is commemorated together with them.
His feast is kept on June 3/16.
NOTE: the original stub was an unprocessed image caption from pravicon.com for a Serbian fresco (Church of Christ Pantocrator, Dečani, Kosovo, c. 1350) reading "Martyr Lucillian and the Four Youths" — this caption correctly and precisely describes this saint: Claudius is indeed one of the four youths who suffered together with Lucillian, not a case of confusion or misattribution.