Martyrs Thyrsus, Leucius, Philemon, Apollonius, and Callinicus

Thyrsus, Leucius, Philemon, Apollonius, and Callinicus were five Christians of Asia Minor and Alexandria in the middle of the third century, during the persecution of Decius (around 250–251). The five did not suffer together — three were martyred at Caesarea in Bithynia, two at Alexandria — but their feasts were joined in the imperial calendar to commemorate the regional Decian persecution as a single event.

Thyrsus, Leucius, and Callinicus were arrested at Caesarea in Bithynia for refusing the imperial sacrifice. Leucius came forward first and was beheaded; Thyrsus survived several rounds of torments — by the synaxarion's account, miraculously — before he was at last sawed in half. Callinicus, a pagan priest who had been converted by Thyrsus during the torments, was burned at the stake.

Philemon and Apollonius were martyred at Alexandria — Apollonius a Christian who had paid Philemon to take his place at the imperial sacrifice, and Philemon a pagan flute-player who at the moment of the substitution found himself unable to perform the sacrifice and instead confessed Christ aloud; both were eventually beheaded together. Their joint feast falls on December 14.