The life of Lucillian and His Companions
His preaching afterward won many converts, which drew the anger of those around him, and he was brought before the governor Silvanus, who had his jaw broken, had him beaten and hung upside down, then thrown into prison. There he met four young men already held for their faith, Claudius, Hypatius, Paul, and Dionysius, and spent his final days encouraging them.
Brought to trial together, all five were thrown into a blazing furnace; tradition holds that a sudden rain extinguished the flames and left them unharmed, but the governor sentenced them to death regardless. The four youths were beheaded at Byzantium, and Lucillian was fastened to a cross with nails. A young woman named Paula, who had cared for the prisoners throughout their sufferings and later buried their bodies, was herself arrested for it and put to death in the same city. Their memory has long been kept together in Constantinople.
