Baring-Gould’s sources: Greek Menaea and Menology of the Emperor Basil. Modern Roman Martyrology, inserted by Baronius. Authority the Ancient Greek Acts, which have every appearance of being on the whole genuine, though with certain small interpolations.] S. Calliopius was the son of a pious and wealthy S. Calliopius.
Christian widow named Theoclia, at Pergos in Pamphylia. The youth was well educated under his mother's care, and on the breaking out of persecution, she sent him away in a private vessel with servants and goods to some place where the persecution was not raging with as great violence as in Pamphylia.
Calliopius, unfortunately, did not go far, but landed almost immediately in the adjoining province of Cilicia, at the port of Pompeiopolis. There he allowed himself to be drawn into a discussion and an avowal of his Christianity, whereupon he was denounced to the prefect, Maximus, who sent for him, and when he heard how wealthy he was, and of noble birth, he endeavoured to induce him to renounce his faith by the offer of his daughter in marriage. But the youth replied that he could not marry without consulting his mother first, and that as to abjuring Christianity, that was out of the question. Maximus then tried his constancy with leaded whips, and finally, when he found the lad invincible, he lost his temper, and ordered him to be bound to the wheel. This was a horrible torture, as the wheel was covered with razor blades. The limbs of the sufferer were twisted among the spokes of the wheel, and then it was set up horizontally on the axle over a fire. The fire however went out, and after the martyr's body was a mass of bruises and gashes, he was taken down and cast into prison. Some of the servants of Calliopius in the mean time had made the best of their way to Pergos, and had told Theoclia that her son was in the hands of the governor; and she at once hasted to Pompeiopolis to see her child. She found him in prison, his whole body swollen and festering, so that he was unable to rise to meet her from the floor on which he lay prostrate; but he greeted her with a sweet smile, and said, “ Welcome, mother 1 thou art come to be a witness to the sufferings of Christ" That is of one (April*.
of the members of Christ's mystical body. 1 Theoclia answered, “ Blessed am I, and blessed is the fruit of my womb, which I consecrated to Christ, as Hannah dedicated Samuel of old !”
She remained that night in prison, sitting at his feet and washing and binding up his wounds. On the morrow he was brought before the prefect, who sentenced him to be crucified on the following Friday, which was Good Friday. Then the mother bribed the executioners not to crucify him in the same manner as his Lord and Master; so they nailed him to the cross head downwards, and thus he expired. But Theoclia stood and watched by the cross, till the greyness of death overspread her son's body, and then the executioner came and took him down, and laid him in his mother's lap. Theoclia put her arms round his neck, and bowed her face upon his dead brow, and sighed, and lo 1 her heart was broken, and she was with Christ and his martyr.
