Hieromartyr Therapontes the Bishop of Sardis

Therapon was bishop of Sardis in Lydia, in the third century, in a time of persecution. He taught many Greeks the Christian faith. His Life tells that he was arrested by the governor Julian, held in prison without food and water, and sent in chains to Synaon in Phrygia and to Ancyra in Galatia, where he was tortured at each place.

At the river Astala he was stretched naked on the ground and tied to four stakes. The Life tells that the stakes later took root and grew into trees. He was put to death in Lydia, near the river Hermus. The Church remembers him as a hieromartyr, a bishop who died for his faith.