Sosipater

The Lives Of The Saints: Volume 06, June · SS. SOSIPATER AND JASON.

SS. SOSIPATER AND JASON.

(1ST CENT.)

[Greek Menology and Mensea ; Roman Martyrology, S. Sosipater of Beroea alone, Ado, Usuardus, Notker names S. Sosipater only. But i', Jason in the Roman Martyrology on July iath. Authority : — The accounts in the Menology and Menaea.J

[AINTS SOSIPATER and Jason are mentioned by S. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans, xvL 21, as his kinsmen, and Jason is spoken of in the Acts of the Apostles, xvii. 4. When S. Paul was preaching in Thessalonica, a tumult arose, and the multitude surrounded the house of Jason, where they believed S. Paul had taken refuge ; and when they could not find him, they drew Jason before the magistrates,

1 In the Russian Kalendar, date uncertain.

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Lives oj the Saints,

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Jason is said by the Menology of the emperor Basil to have been a native of Tarsus, and in after years to have become the bishop of that city, but Sosipater, born in Achaia, became bishop of Iconium. After a while both resigned their sees and went to the West, but were driven on the island of Corcyra, when Cercylinus, the king, ordered them to be apprehended and cast into prison. There they con- verted seven robbers with whom they shared their dungeon, and the jailer Autonius. The king hearing this, ordered the execution of Autonius. Then fire fell from heaven, and consumed the wife and two sons of the king, and dis- solved the chains of the saints. They were forthwith allowed to depart in peace, but not before they had con- verted Cercyra, the daughter of the king. She was pierced with arrows, stoned to death, and the seven robbers were thrown into vessels of boiling oil and pitch. It is not necessary to add that this story is purely fabulous.1

Martyrologium Romanum · Latin witness

Apud Beroeam natalis sancti Sosipatris, qui fuit discipulus beati Pauli Apostoli.