Hieromartyr Соссий Путеольский

Hieromartyr Sossius of Puteoli, deacon, suffered for Christ around 305 AD under the persecuting Emperor Diocletian. He served as a deacon in Misenum, Campania (Italy), and was one of the closest companions of Hieromartyr Januarius, Bishop of Benevento. Together with Bishop Januarius, the deacons Proculus and Faustus, the reader Desiderius, and the laymen Eutychius and Acutius, Saint Sossius was arrested by order of Timothy, governor of Campania, for confessing the Christian faith. The martyrs were imprisoned at Puteoli (modern Pozzuoli, near Naples), where other Christians arrested earlier were already being held. The next day the saints were thrown to wild beasts in the arena, but the animals refused to touch them — a manifest miracle witnessed by the crowd. Enraged, Governor Timothy ordered all the martyrs beheaded outside the city walls. The relics of Hieromartyr Januarius (with relics of his companions) are venerated today in Naples. Hieromartyr Sossius is commemorated on 21 April/4 May.