Hesychius of Antioch
Feast: 29 May (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
At Antioch in Syria, today in Turkey, Saint Hesychius, martyr, who, a palace official, during the persecution of the emperor Diocletian, on hearing the order that anyone who refused to sacrifice to idols must leave the army, immediately laid down his arms and for this was thrown into the river Orontes with a great stone tied to his right arm.
The miracles
There was never a formal cause: he has been honoured as a saint since before the Church's formal processes began.
Why that counted as sanctity
The Roman Martyrology remembers him on 29 May as a palace official of Antioch drowned in the Orontes for refusing to sacrifice to idols.
- Roman Martyrology, 29 May (Italian Bishops' Conference, Santo del giorno)
- Wikidata Q4203804 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
Checked against the sources listed on 22 September 2026. Corrections welcome.