Martyrs Galaction and his wife Epistimia, at Emesa

According to the Life of Galaction and Episteme, set in Emesa in Phoenicia in the 3rd century, Galaction was born to the childless pagan couple Clitophon and Leucippe after a monk, Onuphrius, baptized Leucippe. At twenty-four he was betrothed to Episteme, a pagan; he told her he could not embrace her unless she believed, and baptized her himself in the river.

The two gave away their goods in secret and entered monasteries on Mount Pouplion, he among monks, she with a deaconess and a few nuns. When persecution came, pagans reported them to the governor Ursus. They were tortured, with sharp spikes driven under their nails and their tongues cut out, and then beheaded outside the courtyard. The Life says their servant Eutolmius, who had followed them, buried the bodies.