Faithfulness to Christ when it cost everything.
July 17
August 17
Martyr
Thin entry · the 1897 book gives only 62 words. We have not filled the gap with invented detail.
At Amastris, in Paphlagonia, the people adored an immense tree. This excited the wrath of a Christian, named Hyacinth, and one night he hewed down the sacred tree. He was discovered, arrested, and tortured.
Stay faithful when it costs you. This account is about holding firm under pressure.
Learn from the kind of life it was. Faithfulness to Christ when it cost everything.
At Amastris, in Paphlagonia, the people adored an immense tree. This excited the wrath of a Christian, named Hyacinth, and one night he hewed down the sacred tree. He was discovered, arrested, and tortured. His teeth were knocked out, then sharp reeds were stuck into his flesh, and he was cast into prison, where he died of the injuries he had received.
Feast: August 17
Traditional: July 17
One short email a day for nine days. The day's prayer, a line from St. Hyacinth's story, and a nudge to keep going.
Image: Carracci Saint Hyacinth.jpg · Ludovico Carracci · Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain.
Image: Ludovico Carracci, Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain in the United States. Reproduced unedited, except for short bracketed notes in grey that we added to explain names and terms (“S.” is the old abbreviation for Saint). Some history and judgments reflect 19th-century scholarship.