The life of St Procopius of Caesarea
When Diocletian turned against the Church, Neanias was sent with soldiers toward Alexandria to put Christians to death there. On the road, near a city in Syria, a light broke over him and a voice asked why he was hunting Him down. He asked who spoke, and was told, I am Jesus, whom they crucified. A cross of light stood in the air before him, and he was not the same man after that.
His own mother went to the emperor over it. He was called in to be handed the imperial order and tore it apart in front of everyone. They chained him and sent him under guard to Caesarea, and after they had hurt him badly they put him in a cell in the dark, and there Christ came to him in the night and baptized him with His own hand and named him Procopius. Seeing her son unbroken, his mother came at last to believe herself and was put to death confessing it. The magistrate who followed, seeing torture had failed, sent Procopius to the sword. Christians took his body that night and buried him with their prayers over him.
