Thalleleus of Aegae

Thalleleus was born around the year 263 in Lebanon, the son of a Christian named Berucius and his wife Romylia, and trained from his youth as a physician at the medical school of Beirut. He took up the practice of medicine as a young man and, in the spirit of the unmercenary saints, refused payment from his patients, healing the poor and the rich alike for the love of God. When the persecution of Diocletian and Maximian broke out in 303, he fled inland to Cilicia, hoping to escape notice, and continued his work at Aegae and the surrounding villages.

He was eventually denounced and brought before the prefect Theodore, who attempted by torments to compel him to offer sacrifice. The synaxarion records a long series of miraculous deliverances — the executioners assigned to crucify him were struck blind, the wild beasts released in the amphitheater bowed before him, and the wood prepared for his burning refused to catch fire. At last the prefect ordered him beheaded.

Two of the executioners, Alexander and Asterius, witnessing the miracles, confessed Christ on the spot and were martyred together with Thalleleus. The young physician is venerated among the Anargyroi — the "unmercenary" saints who took no fee for their healing work, in imitation of the apostles. His feast is kept on May 20.