The life of St Autonomus, Bishop in Italy
He raised Cornelius first to deacon, then went off to preach in Lycaonia and Isauria, and on his return made him a priest.
When Diocletian himself came near, to Nicomedia, and his hatred of Christians was known to be at its worst, Autonomus withdrew again, to towns on the Black Sea, and waited it out. He came back once more to Soreus, found the church he had planted still standing and growing, and this time made Cornelius its bishop. He went on preaching at a nearby village and brought its people to baptism. Some of the newly converted, in their zeal, tore down a pagan shrine, and the pagans of the district waited for their chance. It came while Autonomus stood at the altar saying the Liturgy in his own church: they broke in and killed him there, so that his blood reddened the altar itself. A deaconess named Maria took up his body from where they had left it and buried him.
