Catholic · † 165
Saint Justin, Martyr
Commemorated: June 1
Life
Justin was born about 100 at Flavia Neapolis, today Nablus, in Samaria, into a pagan family. He tells that he went from one school of philosophy to another, Stoic, Pythagorean and Platonist, until an old man he met by the sea spoke to him of the prophets and of Christ. He became a Christian and went on wearing the philosopher’s cloak, teaching in Rome.
His two Apologies, addressed to the emperor Antoninus Pius, give one of the earliest descriptions of Christian baptism and of the Sunday Eucharist; his Dialogue with Trypho records a debate with a Jewish teacher. About 165, under Marcus Aurelius, he was denounced, tried with six companions before the prefect Rusticus, and beheaded. The record of their trial survives.
Places
- Place of birth: Nablus
- Place of death: Rome
Retold briefly in our own words from: Butler’s Lives of the Saints.
Places and years: Wikidata (CC0), each saint matched by hand.