Martyr Conon of Isauria

Conon was born in the village of Bethany near the city of Isauria in Asia Minor; his Life places him in the generation after the apostle Paul preached there. It tells that the Archangel Michael taught and baptized him as a youth, and that on his wedding night he persuaded his bride Anna to live with him as brother and sister. He brought his parents to the faith; his father Nestor was later killed by pagans.

In old age, the Life says, he challenged the townspeople to a race to the cave shrine of Apollo, arrived first though on foot, and converted many. When a governor named Magdon tortured him, the Isaurians took up arms and drove the governor out. Conon died of his wounds two years later, in the 1st century.