Martyr Sozon of Cilicia

Sozon was a young shepherd from Lycaonia who taught the other herdsmen about Christ. According to his Life, he fell asleep by a spring under an oak and saw a vision calling him to martyrdom; he left his bow and three arrows at the spot and went to the Cilician city of Pompeiopolis.

There, as the governor Maximian was offering sacrifice to a golden idol, Sozon broke off the idol's hand and gave the pieces to the poor, saying that a god who could not resist was no god. He was hung up and torn with iron claws, made to walk in shoes studded with nails and beaten, and he died c. 304. His Life tells that the pyre prepared for his body was put out by a storm.