Martyr Acacius the Centurion at Byzantium

Acacius, a Cappadocian born into a Christian family, was a centurion of the Martesian regiment when the persecution under Maximian reached the army, c. 303. When his tribune Firmus questioned him, he declared that his parents, grandparents and great-grandparents had all been Christians and so would he be. Before the commander Bibianus he played on his own name, which in Greek means 'guileless'.

His Passion tells that he was beaten, imprisoned at Perinthus in Thrace and then led in heavy chains to Byzantium, where the governor, astonished that he had been tortured so long, ordered him to be beheaded outside the city. He was buried at the place of his execution, called the Staurion.