Martyr Philetus of Illyria

Saint Philetus held the high rank of senator (synkletikos) at the court of Emperor Hadrian, a well-known persecutor of Christians. When he openly confessed Christ together with his wife Lydia and sons Macedon and Theoprepius, they were all brought to trial and, by the emperor's order, sent to Illyricum to the military commander Amphilochius to be tortured into recanting.

Amphilochius hung the martyrs from a tree and scraped their bodies with iron hooks, then threw them into a cauldron of boiling oil — but tradition holds they emerged unharmed. Witnessing this, Amphilochius himself came to believe in Christ and, as a declaration of faith, stepped into the boiling oil, likewise remaining unharmed.

The family was imprisoned together with the warder Kronidas, who also converted after witnessing an angel appear to strengthen the martyrs. Emperor Hadrian himself attended a repeat torture, which again failed to harm the saints; in the end, all the martyrs peacefully gave up their souls to God in prayer.

IMPORTANT NOTE: this saint should be distinguished from the false teacher Philetus mentioned by the Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 2:17 (paired with Hymenaeus), who taught that the resurrection had already occurred — this is not a saint but a heretic denounced by the apostle, entirely unrelated to the martyr of Illyria.

His feast is kept on March 23/April 5.