Holy Martyrs Lucillian, the Youths Claudius, Hypatius, and Dionysius, and Paula the Virgin

Lucillian was an aged pagan priest living near Nicomedia under the emperor Aurelian. In old age he became a Christian and drew others after him, until he was denounced to the governor Silvanus, tortured and thrown into prison. There he met four young Christians, Claudius, Hypatius, Paul and Dionysius, and encouraged them. According to their Life, all five were cast into a furnace and came out unharmed. They were then sent to Byzantium for execution: the four young men were beheaded and Lucillian was nailed to a cross.

Paula, an orphaned Christian maiden of means, had bribed the guards to bring the prisoners food and clothes and to dress their wounds, and she buried the young men. Later she too was tried before Silvanus and was beheaded at Byzantium, on the place where Lucillian had died, about 270–275.