Hieromartyr Artemon of Laodicea

Artemon was a presbyter of Laodicea in Pisidia in southwest Asia Minor — distinct from the second-century bishop of Laodicea-on-Lycus to whom Paul addressed his Colossian letter, though sometimes confused with him. The Artemon of March 24 was a second-century or early-third-century priest, ordained, by some traditions, by the Apostle Paul on his last journey through Phrygia, and serving the church of Laodicea for nearly seventy years.

By the time of the persecution of Diocletian in 303 Artemon was eighty-nine years old. The synaxarion records that he had publicly destroyed a great pagan idol that the local prefect had set up in the marketplace, and was arrested for the deed. The prefect, an ardent enemy of the Christians, intended to make a spectacle of the old man's punishment. Two ravenous lions had been kept without food for the occasion; Artemon was thrown into the arena.

The lions, by the synaxarion's account, lay down at his feet and were so tamed by his prayer that they followed him out of the arena when he walked free. The prefect, deciding that no further dramatic punishment would do, had him beheaded outside the city instead. His feast falls on March 24, on the eve of the Annunciation.