The life of St Phocas of Sinope
When he would not, he was tortured and then shut into a hot bath, where he died a martyr's death.
Two centuries later, in the year 404, his relics were carried from Pontus to Constantinople, and Saint John Chrysostom preached a homily in his honor at their arrival. Some scholars have questioned whether this account of Bishop Phocas is fully distinct from the memory of another Phocas venerated in the same region, a gardener of Sinope also martyred and also called a wonderworker, since the two lives share details and may have grown together in the telling over the centuries. Whatever the exact history behind it, the Church has long kept the memory of Phocas, bishop and martyr of Sinope, honoring him as one who gave his life for Christ under Trajan's persecution.
