Holy Martyr Philosophus

Life

This martyr of Christ was from the vicinity of Alexandria. In the time of the persecution of Christians, the holy Philosophus would not deny Christ the Lord before the pagan princes and judges. For this the pagans subjected him to cruel torments. After he had been tortured with various torments, they finally placed him in a soft bed and bound both his feet and his hands, and sent a dissolute woman to him to lead him into sin. When the holy Philosophus felt that lust was being aroused in him by the touch of the woman's hands, he clenched his tongue between his teeth, bit it off, and spat it in the face of the harlot. From this the lust within him was extinguished, and the unchaste woman was so horrified that she immediately fled from him. He was then beheaded with the sword around the year 252, in his young years, and departed to the Kingdom of eternal youth.