Priest-Martyr Irenaeus, Bishop of Sirmium

Life

He is believed to have been a Slav, and to have been married and had children before his episcopate. He suffered for Christ in the time of Maximian. During his severe torments his relatives stood around him and with weeping begged him to spare himself and them — that is, to deny Christ. But this wondrous Priest-Martyr loved wounds for Christ more than all the goods of this world. At the same time there also suffered under the prefect Probus a gardener in Sirmium named Serenus, and Afr in Regio. Since Irenaeus absolutely refused to deny the faith, the prefect Probus ordered him to be cast from a bridge into the River Sava, where this shepherd of Christ's flock ended his life and departed among the citizens of heaven. He suffered honorably in the year 304.