Martyr
Martyr Aphrodisius of Cilicia
✓ Comprehensive Orthodox source review completed
A preacher and martyr remembered for steadfast confession amid severe persecution.
Core account checked against Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America — Online Chapel, Saints and Feasts, Orthodox Church in America — Lives of the Saints, June 21, The Prologue from Ohrid — June 21. Additional ecclesiastical references appear below.
Life and Witness
Confessor and Martyr
Saint Aphrodisius is commemorated as a martyr who proclaimed Christ during the Roman persecutions. The synaxarial notice locates his witness in Cilicia and remembers his refusal to worship the pagan gods.
He endured severe torments without renouncing the Savior. The hagiographical tradition associates his contest with deliverance from a heated vessel and with a wild animal that would not harm him.
The Arena Tradition
The account of the lioness expresses a recurring theme in the lives of the martyrs: irrational creation recognizes the servant of God while persecutors misuse human freedom. The wonder is received within the Church's martyrological tradition.
Because the surviving notice is limited, later dramatic details are not expanded beyond the ecclesiastical sources. The heart of the commemoration is his steadfast confession and death for Christ.
Feast Day
June 21 — Holy Martyr Aphrodisius of Cilicia.
Historical Record and Ecclesiastical Tradition
The surviving Orthodox notice for Aphrodisius of Cilicia is brief and principally preserves his preaching, refusal of idolatry and martyrdom. The article therefore avoids conflating him with other saints and bishops named Aphrodisius and does not invent family history, an imperial court career, relic locations or miracles absent from the responsible source tradition.
Biographical information on this page is based exclusively on the Orthodox ecclesiastical sources listed below.
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America — Online Chapel, Saints and FeastsOrthodox Church in America — Lives of the Saints, June 21The Prologue from Ohrid — June 21