Virginmartyr Pelagia of Tarsus, in Asia Minor

Pelagia was a young woman of a noble and wealthy family of Tarsus in Cilicia, martyred c. 290 under Diocletian. Her Passion tells that she refused marriage with the emperor's son, slipped out of the city on the pretext of visiting her old nurse, and was baptized by Clinon, the bishop of Tarsus, who was hiding in the hills.

According to the same account, the rejected prince took his own life, and her pagan mother, fearing the emperor's revenge, bound her and handed her over herself. Diocletian offered to make her his wife if she would deny Christ; when she refused, he had her put to death in a red-hot bronze bull. Bishop Clinon is said to have buried her bones on a hill outside the city.