Hieromartyr Philip, bishop of Heraclea, and with him Martyrs Severus, Memnon, and 37 soldiers at Plovdiv in Thrace (304)

Commemorated on August 20

He served in Thrace in the time of Diocletian's persecutions. When the pagans were about to burn a Christian church, he came forward and said to them: 'Do you think that God is shut within walls? He lives in men's hearts.' The church was burned and all its clergy were taken to Jedrene where, after long imprisonment and torture, they were drowned in the river Maritsa. The holy bishop Philip, His Priest Severus, His Deacon Hermes, and thirty-eight other Christians all received the martyr's crown.