The life of St Leonides of Alexandria
When the persecution under the emperor Septimius Severus reached Alexandria in the year 202, Leonides was seized, his property confiscated by the prefect, and he was condemned to death and beheaded, leaving behind a widow and seven children in poverty.
Origen, then a youth of about seventeen, longed to share his father's martyrdom, and would have gone to give himself up as well had his mother not hidden his clothes to keep him from leaving the house. Origen is remembered to have written to his father in prison, urging him not to be troubled for his children's sake and not to hold back from martyrdom on their account. Leonides did not hold back, and his death left his family without means, though his son went on to support them and to become renowned for his own labors in the Scriptures.
