Sozon of Cilicia

Sozon was a shepherd-boy of Cilicia in the early fourth century — by some accounts a Persian, by others a Cilician native, raised in the faith from his youth. He pastured his master's flocks in the hills around Pompeiopolis. During the persecution of Maximian, when the great pagan festivals were being celebrated with extra fervor, Sozon entered the temple in his town one night and broke up the great golden idol that stood there, distributing the pieces to the poor of the surrounding villages.

In the morning, when the destruction was discovered, the prefect arrested several local Christians on suspicion. Sozon, learning that innocent men were being held, came forward and confessed the deed himself. The prefect, astonished that a shepherd-boy had dared such a thing, attempted by appeals and then by threats to force him to recant. When this failed, he ordered Sozon's hands beaten with iron rods, then dragged through the city in iron-tipped sandals (a torture later repeated for many martyrs), and finally cast into a furnace.

The synaxarion records that the fire did not consume his body but only released his soul; his body was recovered whole and buried at Pompeiopolis. His feast falls on September 7, the eve of the Nativity of the Theotokos.