Hieromartyr
Hieromartyr Carpus of Thyatira
† ок. 250
Also known as: Карп Пергамский
Hieromartyr Carpus, Bishop of Thyatira — son of a pagan priest who converted to Christ, arrested under Emperor Decius together with the deacon Papylus, the servant Agathodorus, and the martyr Agathonike; marched bound roughly 60 km to Sardis, where he was beheaded.
Hieromartyr Carpus was Bishop of Thyatira (some sources say he served in Pergamum), the son of a pagan priest who converted to Christianity and zealously preached the Gospel.
During the persecution of Emperor Decius (mid-3rd century), the local governor learned that Carpus and his deacon Papylus refused to take part in pagan festivals and ordered their arrest. They were voluntarily joined by the servant Agathodorus and by Papylus's sister Agathonike, who likewise confessed Christ.
After torture and refusal to sacrifice to the pagan gods, the martyrs were bound, dragged behind horses, and marched roughly 60 km from Thyatira to Sardis. There, Agathonike was strangled with ox sinews, while Carpus, Papylus, and Agathodorus were beheaded.
His feast is kept on October 13/26.
IMPORTANT CORRECTION: category martyr→hieromartyr (he was a bishop). One of the entry's 4 images turned out to depict an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT saint — Apostle Carpus of the Seventy of Berrhoea (disciple of the Apostle Paul, a separate, independent figure in the "apostle_of_70" category) — removed as belonging to a different person; a generic May calendar icon was likewise removed as inconsistent with the October feast.