Hieromartyr Theopemptus, Bishop of Nicomedia, and Martyr Theonas the Sorcerer

Theopemptus was bishop of Nicomedia, the eastern capital of Diocletian, and, according to his Life, the first to suffer in the persecution that began there in 303. Brought before the emperor, he refused to sacrifice to Apollo, saying that gods of silver, gold, wood and stone could neither breathe nor speak. His Life tells of a furnace, a long imprisonment without food and other tortures that failed to break him, and says that Diocletian finally had him beheaded.

The Life says the emperor summoned an Egyptian sorcerer named Theonas to overcome the bishop's "magic". When the poisons he gave Theopemptus did him no harm, Theonas declared himself a Christian; the bishop baptized him in prison with the name Synesius. Theonas was thrown into a pit, covered with earth and trampled by horses.