The life of St Nestor of Thessalonica
Demetrius blessed him and told him he would prevail, though he would suffer for it afterward. Nestor entered the arena, called on the God of Demetrius, and struck Lyaeus down.
Enraged at the loss of his champion, Maximian ordered both Demetrius and Nestor put to death; Demetrius was killed with spears where he was held, and Nestor was beheaded. Modern scholarship regards the surviving account of Demetrius's own trial and death, in which this story of Nestor is set, as a legendary composition rather than sober history, likely grown up around relics whose true origin had been forgotten by the time a church was built for them centuries later; the exact year of Nestor's death is given variously in different sources. The Church nonetheless keeps Nestor's memory as a companion in Demetrius's own suffering.
