Sozonte

Sozonte (also Sozon or Sozontes; Greek Σώζων) is a Christian martyr of the late third and early fourth centuries, commemorated in both Eastern and Western liturgical tradition. The principal accounts survive in Byzantine synaxaria and in the Roman Martyrology rather than in independent contemporary documents. Those texts present him as a native of Lycaonia in Asia Minor who worked as a shepherd. He is described as leading a devout life, given to meditation on the Law of God and to the reading of Scripture, and as having a particular devotion to the Apostle Paul, who had preached in Lycaonia.

According to the same hagiographical tradition, during the persecution associated with the emperor Maximian he went to Pompeiopolis in Cilicia while a pagan festival was being held. Entering the temple, he broke the right hand from a golden idol and distributed the metal to the poor. When the desecration was discovered he presented himself to the authorities, confessed both the act and his Christian faith, and refused to sacrifice to the gods.

He was then subjected to interrogation and torture. The narratives speak of scourging and of his flesh being torn with iron instruments; remaining steadfast, he was condemned to death and is said to have died under torment or by fire. The Roman Martyrology records him on 7 September at Pompeiopolis in Cilicia as a shepherd crowned with martyrdom for the name of Christ under Maximian. The year 304 is the conventional date attached to this passion in later martyrological and Orthodox sources, coinciding with the Great Persecution, but it is not independently confirmed by non-hagiographical evidence.

Beyond these liturgical legends almost nothing can be verified. Like many martyrs of that period, Sozonte is known almost solely through cult. He is commemorated on 7 September in the Byzantine rite and in the Roman Martyrology. Devotion spread in the Greek East and, through martyrologies and claimed relics, in the Latin West. In southern Italy the Calabrian town of San Sosti (province of Cosenza) takes its name from him and honours him as patron. Precise facts of his birth, family, burial, and the later history of his relics remain unknown.