The life of St Isidore of Chios
Numerius had him beaten, dragged over rocky ground, and finally had his tongue cut out when he would not stop confessing Christ; even without his tongue, tradition holds, Isidore continued to speak by the grace of God. He was beheaded, and his body was thrown into a well to keep it from Christian burial.
Two of his friends on the island, Ammonios and a young woman named Myrope, recovered his body secretly and buried it with honor; when soldiers were threatened with death for losing it, Myrope came forward and admitted what she had done, though she would not say where he was buried, and she died soon after under torture and imprisonment. Both Isidore and Myrope were buried together, and a chapel, later a church, was raised over their graves. Isidore's memory, and the well associated with his martyrdom, were known even in the West within a few centuries, and he is honored today as a patron of sailors.
