The sufferings of the holy martyrs Peregrine, Lucian, Pompey, Ischias, Papias, Saturninus and Hermanus

These holy martyrs were of Italian origin and suffered under the reign of Emperor Trajan. 1 When the persecution of Christians began, they boarded a ship and arrived in a city called Dirrachium. 2 While in that city, they saw the holy bishop Astius 3 hanging on a cross and anointed with honey, and how hornets and flies bit him, and they glorified him for confessing Christ.

When they were questioned, they confessed their faith in Christ, and at the command of Antipate, 4 Agricola took them aboard a ship and drowned them in the depths of the sea. Thus the holy martyrs died. 5 Their bodies were later thrown by the waves to the shore and buried in the sands.

Then the bishop buried the bodies of the saints with honors and built a small church on the site of their burial.

1 Trajan reigned in the Roman Empire from 98 to 117 C.E. In 99 C.E., he renewed the law prohibiting secret societies, and since the Gentiles had already formed an opinion about Christians as belonging to a secret society, and since Christian meetings were held at night and secretly, he persecuted them as violators of the law.

2 The city of Dirrachium, otherwise known as Epipham, now known as Durazzo, was located in present-day Albania on the shores of the Adriatic Sea. 3 The memory of the holy martyr Astius is celebrated on June 4.