Martyr Socrates the Presbyter, of Ancyra

Hieromartyr Socrates the Presbyter suffered in the 3rd century, during the reign of Emperor Alexander Severus (222–235), in Asia Minor, together with the Martyress Theodota. As a presbyter, he shared her fate in the persecution for Christ and was martyred alongside her. The joint veneration of Hieromartyr Socrates and Martyress Theodota is attested as early as the Byzantine Menologion of Emperor Basil II (Constantinople, c. 985), confirming the antiquity of their cult in the Greek tradition. No detailed vita survives; his commemoration is only sparsely represented in the modern printed Russian Orthodox Menaion, surviving chiefly in Greek synaxaria and icon collections. Feast: October 21/November 3.