The life of St Alexander the Martyr
When the governor Antoninus came to the city and had him brought in for questioning, Alexander described himself simply as a shepherd of Christ's flock, and when pressed further, said that all who believed in Christ throughout the world were of that flock, while those given over to lifeless idols were strangers to it.
For this answer he was subjected to prolonged torture: beaten, broken on a wheel, plunged into a vessel of boiling resin and oil, and cast into a furnace, from which, tradition holds, he emerged unharmed, said to have been seen there praying alongside two shining figures amid the flames. He was hanged and pierced through again and again with iron needles, and set before wild beasts that would not touch him. Through it all Alexander did not waver, and the governor at last ordered him beheaded with the sword. A Christian of the city named Eustathius took up his body afterward and buried him with honor. The Church has long kept his memory as one who endured the full range of the persecutor's cruelty and did not yield.
