Saints

Montanus, Lucius, Victoricus, Flavian and companions were ten disciples of St Cyprian of Carthage (in what is now Tunisia). They were martyred there, under the reign of the Emperor Valerian in 259. The story of their imprisonment and martyrdom is well documented. The group were arrested by an official called Solon, after St Cyprian was executed in 258. They spent many months kept in dark dungeon... Read More

Bishop of Smyrna. Martyr. This 2nd century saint was a disciple of St John the Evangelist and an important link between the time of the Apostles and the earliest Christians. He was very elderly when he was arrested, during the persecutions of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. His captors tried to force him to make sacrifices to idols but he refused, saying: "For 86 years I have served Christ and he ha... Read More

King. Born in 560, Ethelbert was the Anglo Saxon king who welcomed St Augustine and his monks when they arrived in Kent, in 597. His wife Bertha, a Frankish princess, was already a Christian and he was soon converted. Although he embraced his faith with enthusiasm, unlike some of his contemporaries, he did not try to force his subjects to become Christians. Instead he gave the missionaries every ... Read More